The Iranian leader Ali Khamenei delivered a Friday sermon after a hiatus of eight years, and that was following the killing of Qasem Soleimani by the American forces. In that sermon, he said: “The country’s economy should be strengthened; the dependence on oil must be ended, and the scientific and technological leap should be continued!”

The question here is how can Iran end its dependence on oil that it cannot sell at all due to the US sanctions? And how can a country, which officially admitted the shooting down of the Ukrainian plane by mistake, continue with the scientific and technological leap?

On the other hand, who launched a vision that not relies on oil, and who asserted that it is an idea of the youth? Simply, the answer is that the vision in the region is the Saudi Vision 2030, which was launched by Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman.

Who tried to belittle this vision from the very beginning, it was none other than Iran, and specifically its supreme leader who called cynically the current Saudi phase, saying: “Youth”!

This phase of “youth” is going to happen after oil. Why does the Iranian leader say that his country’s dependency on oil should be ended at a time when he and his misleading machinery were mocking Saudi Arabia when Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman said the same?

The Crown Prince presented his vision in accordance with an integrated approach, from developing, evaluating, and updating the systems to consolidating the values of tolerance that were lost because of the Khomeinist scheme in our region and the emission of the wave of polluted political Islam.

The Crown Prince crowned with success in all of his projects, including the launch of the initial public offering of the Saudi Aramco shares in order to give partnership for Saudi citizens in the oil giant and that is in line with the Vision 2030.

However, the Iranian leader now presents his vision of not relying on oil in a speech in which he calls on the Iranians to subscribe to the partnership in the blood of Soleimani, whose hand was stained with blood from Iraq to Syria, through Lebanon and even Yemen.

And before that, Iran was such a country that neither made any single concession nor opened a window of hope, and this is evident when we review the religious edict (fatwa) issued by Ayatollah Khomeini in a video nearly four decades ago.

Khomeini said on Aug. 31, 1981: “If the enemy uses a group of innocent Muslims as a human shield, we are obliged to kill Muslims and non-Muslims alike. Muslims are martyrs, and they will go to Heaven while infidels will go to Hell.”

Was it Khomeini who sent the thought and style of Al-Qaeda into our region, or is Al- Qaeda originally an extension of Iran, as both of them adopt the fatwas of “Shields”?

The Saudi Vision 2030 is trying to answer all questions, as well as to develop thought and open windows to the sunrise. The vision started from inside, rejecting extremism in word and deed, and not relying on oil. It is true Saudi Arabia was mistaken and suffered injuries.

Can Iran now open its windows from sports to arts, through the economy, and reject extremism in word and deed while its supreme leader comes out calling for the necessity of not relying on oil in his Friday sermon, while there’s a Dragunov sniper rifle beside his niche, I suspect.