In this file photo, Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir speaks to journalists during a joint press conference in Jakarta, Indonesia. (ACHMAD IBRAHIM / AP)

RIYADH - Saudi Arabia's Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel al-Jubeir denied on Tuesday any role of his country in the assassination of Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh.

He responded through his Twitter account to the allegation by Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif claiming that the murder of the scientist was a Saudi Arabia-US-Israel plot.

It is not the policy of Saudi Arabia to engage in assassinations, al-Jubeir said.

Fakhrizadeh was assassinated on Friday near the Iranian capital Tehran by "armed terrorists," Iranian Ministry of Defense said.

In early 2016, Saudi Arabia cut off diplomatic ties with Iran after the Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran were attacked by the Iranians protesting against the Saudi execution of 47 individuals on terrorism charges, including Saudi Shi'ite cleric Namir al-Namir.

It is not the policy of Saudi Arabia to engage in assassinations, Saudi Arabia's Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel al-Jubeir said

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“Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif is desperate to blame the Kingdom for anything negative that happens in Iran. Will he blame us for the next earthquake or flood?,” minister Adel Al-Jubeir said in a tweet.

“(US Secretary of State Mike) Pompeo’s hurried trips to the region, the trilateral meeting in Saudi Arabia and Netanyahu’s statements all point to this conspiracy that unfortunately emerged in Friday’s cowardly terrorist act and the martyrdom of one of the country’s top executives,” Zarif wrote on Instagram.

A senior Iranian official has said that Tehran suspects a foreign-based opposition group of complicity with Israel in the killing of Fakhrizadeh, whom Western powers see as the architect of an abandoned Iranian nuclear weapons programme.

The group rejected the accusation. Netanyahu’s office has declined to comment on the killing.

READ MORE: Tensions rise in Persian Gulf after Iran scientist assassinated

Both Israel and Saudi Arabia have recently ramped up rhetoric against Iran, which is locked in several proxy wars with Riyadh in the region.

Saudi Arabia has not formally condemned the assassination, unlike the other five Gulf Cooperation Council member countries.

Asked in an interview with Russian broadcaster RT on Tuesday to comment on the killing, Riyadh’s United Nations envoy said the kingdom “did not support the policy of assassinations at all.”