Saudi Arabia cut ties with Iran yesterday and fellow-Sunni Bahrain followed suit today, two days after Iranian demonstrators stormed the Saudi embassy in Tehran in protest at Riyadh’s execution of a senior Shi’ite cleric.
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Iran, a Shia powerhouse, has accused Saudi Arabia of using the attacks on its embassy in Tehran to deliberately stoke “tensions” in the region.
Also, the leader of the Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah group, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, slammed Saudi Arabia for the execution, saying that “Better than any other time, Saudi Arabia is showing its real face to the world”. The United Arab Emirates announced it would downgrade ties to Tehran to the level of the charge d’affaires and would only focus on economic issues. There has been a long history of interference in domestic affairs of countries, for example Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan, Somalia, Pakistan and Yemen. The police then retreated to their checkpoint north of the city, they said. Saudi Arabia claims that it was their sovereign right to execute a Shia scholar who was awarded a death sentence by their court.
Sudan, which has been looking to Saudi for aid since the secession of oil-rich South Sudan in 2011, on Monday announced an “immediate severing of ties” over the diplomatic mission attacks.
Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard said Saudi Arabia’s “medieval act of savagery” would lead to the “downfall” of the country’s monarchy. He particularly expressed concer about the recent sharp increase in executions in Saudi Arabia, with at least 157 people put to death in 2015, compared to 90 executed in 2014, and lower numbers in previous years. That diplomatic freeze saw Iran halt pilgrims from attending the hajj in Saudi Arabia, something required of all able Muslims once in their lives.
Watch CBN’s experts discuss the possibility and consequences of an outright war between Saudi Arabia and Iran and what can be done to stop it. CBN Middle East Bureau Chief Chris Mitchell, Chief International Correspondent Gary Lane, and Terrorism Analyst Erick Stakelbeck share their expertise and opinions.
Western powers sought to calm the tensions. “It is so clearly in the interests of both countries to advance a political solution to the situation inside of Syria”. The sheikh’s brother, Mohammed al-Nimr, told The Associated Press that Saudi officials informed his family that the cleric had been buried in an undisclosed cemetery, a development that could lead to further protests.
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After a furious response in Shi’ite communities worldwide to the Sunni kingdom’s execution of Shi’ite Muslim cleric Nimr al-Nimr, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said Iran was creating “terrorist cells” among the kingdom’s Shi’ite minority. And he urged Saudi Arabia and Iran not to let the conflict derail fragile talks aimed at securing a cease-fire and a political transition to end the war in Syria.
