saudi arabia is in the news mostly for the wrong reasons an ongoing crisis with qatar a battle for regional power with iran a war in yemen daesh and alqaida at its doorstep pakistans close ally daily reports of guest worker abuse yet as indias top oil supplier and a security partner it counts for a lot as delhi prepares to host king salman in the coming months saudi ambassador saud al sati clears the fog in a chat with indrani bagchiwhat is the likely outcome in the saudi arabiaqatar crisissaudi arabia decided to sever diplomatic ties with qatar to protect its security qatar over the years has been supporting extremist groups like hezbollah muslim brotherhood and houthi militias which have been behind attacks in the region qatar has also been duplicitous on one hand they pretend to make assurances of combating terrorism whilst simultaneously support and fund an array of terrorist groups as well as interfere in saudi arabias internal affairs kuwait is engaged in a mediation effort we hope qatar can end support to terrorist groups and remove terror leaders like the head of muslim brotherhood from their country qatar attended the antiterror summit in riyadh but afterwards took positions contrary to the summit declaration for instance that iran is a sponsor of terrorism which they later disagreed withhow are you combating islamist extremismwe have formed multiple alliances and coalitions to eradicate this menace in 2005 we launched a national public awareness campaign against extremism which is ongoing we have implemented one of the worlds most strict financial control systems to combat terror financing donations in mosques and public places are prohibited without public approvalwhy do saudi charities fund madrassas and mosques in india to spread wahabi islamthis is not true i have not seen any official reports that say this saudi charities are prohibited from transferring money outside the country there are strict financial controls and action has been taken against violators including incarceration we are cooperating with india to check illegal transfer of funds and money launderingwhy are you targeting iran is the war against terror a cloak to fight iraniran is the leading state sponsor of terrorism it has been reiterated by our foreign minister adel al jubeir if iran were to contribute to our collective war on terrorism it should get rid of all alqaida terrorists who get safe haven inside iran stop funding groups like hezbollah and houthi militants in yemenwhy are there continuous reports of indians being treated badly in saudi arabia getting thrown out of jobs etcwe have not seen any significant change in numbers of indian nationals working in the kingdom in 201516 there are now 304 million indians working there and over 400 indian companies however companies restructure during difficulties and people do get laid off but we are trying to ensure guest workers have an accessible redressal system to protect themwe see a number of false news reports in the indian media i urge that journalistsfamily