Bahrain, a Sunni-ruled island kingdom with a restive Shi’ite majority, accused Iran of “blatant and risky interference” in the affairs of the Gulf Arab countries, in a statement announcing the severing of diplomatic ties.
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The United Arab Emirates (UAE), home to hundreds of thousands of Iranians, partially downgraded its relations but the other Gulf Arab countries – Kuwait, Qatar and Oman – stayed above the fray.
The crisis in the Middle East escalated yesterday after Saudi Arabia imposed a raft of new sanctions against Iran. A Saudi diplomat, Mousa’ad al-Ghamdi, died in Tehran of wounds sustained when he fell out of an embassy window and Riyadh accused Tehran of delaying his transfer to a hospital in Saudi Arabia.
The decision followed strong statements from Emirati officials in support of Riyadh and condemning the attack on the Saudi embassy.
It said relations should be based on “mutual respect for the sovereignty” and “non-interference in the internal affairs of others”.
“The Secretary-General reiterated that the attack on the Saudi embassy in Tehran was deplorable, but added that the announcement of a break in Saudi diplomatic relations with Tehran was deeply worrying”, United Nations spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters. The step is seen as stopping short of a full severing of ties. With Saudi diplomatic missions closed in Iran, it will make it hard for Iranians to get visas for the hajj.
“As a more toxic sectarian confrontation engulfs the region, the losers are likely to be Syria and Yemen”.
Nimr, 56, was a force behind 2011 anti-government protests in oil-rich eastern Saudi Arabia, where Shiites have long complained of marginalisation.
– Saudi Arabia sent troops to help Bahrain quash mass pro-democracy protests, fearing the mostly Shi’ite opposition would align with Iran.
A Russian state news agency on Monday quoting an unnamed senior diplomat as saying Moscow is ready to act as a mediator in the escalating conflict.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossein Jaberi Ansari also said Monday that Saudi Arabia’s execution of prominent Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr over the weekend was an example of this.
– In March 2015, Saudi Arabia began a military campaign in Yemen to stop the Houthis, allied to Iran, from taking power. RIA Novosti did not say whether Moscow had made the mediation proposal to either side.
The disruption in relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran may have implications for peace efforts in Syria.
The official Saudi Press Agency reported early Monday that a man was killed in al-Awamiya village and a child was wounded.
On Saturday, Saudi Arabia put al-Nimr and three other Shiite dissidents to death, along with a number of al-Qaida militants. 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. But during the last two years the relations between Khartoum and Tehran changed after the Saudis agreed to financially support the Sudanese in return for the gradual cutting of relations with Tehran.
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Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, condemned al-Nimr’s execution, saying Sunday the cleric “neither invited people to take up arms nor hatched covert plots”.
