DUBAI: Iran on Sunday accused Saudi Arabia of backing terrorism after a senior Saudi prince, a former intelligence chief, addressed a Paris rally held by exiled Iranian rebels and told them he wanted the Iranian government to fall.

“The Saudis are resorting to well-known terrorists ... as they have also done in Iraq, Yemen and Syria. This shows that they use terrorism and terrorists to further their aims against regional Islamic countries,” an unnamed Iranian Foreign Ministry source was quoted by Iran’s state news agency IRNA as saying.

The rally addressed by Prince Turki al-Faisal on Saturday was held by the political wing of the exiled People’s Mujahideen Organisation of Iran (PMOI), which seeks the overthrow of Iran’s clerical leadership established by the 1979 Islamic revolution.

Saudi media gave top coverage to the speech. The rally was also attended by a number of Western political figures, including former US House of Representatives speaker Newt Gingrich.

Iran accuses Saudi Arabia of supporting the militant Islamic State group and other such groups, which Riyadh denies. The Saudis say Iran is fomenting sectarian violence in the Middle East and has aspirations to dominate the region.

“Your legitimate struggle against the [Iranian] regime will achieve its goal, sooner or later,” Prince Turki, also an ex-ambassador to Washington and London, had said in his speech. “I, too, want the fall of the regime,” he added.