The Obama administration tread warily Monday around inflamed tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia that threaten several key USA foreign policy objectives.
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Saudi foreign minister Adel al Jubeir told Reuters all commercial ties between the countries would also be cut.
Al-Nimr – a longtime critic of the conservative Sunni kingdom’s discrimination against Shiites – was among 47 people executed in Saudi Arabia on Saturday, many of whom had been convicted on terrorism related charges.
Iranian officials condemned the attack, as well as Sheikh al Nimr’s execution by Saudi Arabia.
Riyadh and then Bahrain and Sudan have now severed relations with Tehran, the main Shiite power.
Bahrain and Sudan cut off diplomatic links with Iran, and the United Arab Emirates downgraded its ties with the Islamic Republic. Iran hailed Nimr as a “martyr” and warned Saudi Arabia’s ruling Al Saud family of “divine revenge”. In 2011, Saudi Arabia sent troops into the island nation to back the Sunni rulers seeking to crush a Shiite-led uprising demanding a greater voice in the country’s affairs. With Saudi diplomatic missions closed in Iran, it will make it hard for Iranians to get visas for the hajj.
Demonstrators gathered outside the Saudi embassy in Tehran, and according to CNN, at least one person started throwing “homemade firebombs” at the embassy before other protesters made their way into the building, which was empty at the time, to ransack it and start a fire.
Turkey’s relations with Saudi Arabia have warmed considerably in recent months and in December President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited Riyadh for talks with King Salman and the entire Saudi elite.
Council members urged the sides to “maintain dialogue and take steps to reduce tensions in the region”.
Asked if the rift could harm efforts to reach a political solution in Syria, Earnest said, “We’re hopeful that it won’t”. A US official said Kerry had spoken on Sunday with the U.N special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, to gauge any impact Saudi-Iranian developments might have on the planned January 25 start of negotiations.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon spoke by phone with the Saudi and Iranian foreign ministers to urge them to “avoid any actions that could further exacerbate the situation between two countries and in the region as a whole”, said Ban’s spokesman Stephane Dujarric.
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Iran’s supreme leader said Saudi politicians will face “divine vengeance” for killing the cleric.
