The UAE said it plans to cut down on diplomatic ties with Iran, while Sudan and Bahrain cut off links with the country.
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Iran’s chief executive further referred to “negotiation and diplomacy” as the “best way to settle disputes between the countries”. Despite previous tensions, Iran continues to meddle in the affairs of the region and violate established worldwide rules that protect the sovereignty of states.
Iranian riot police block a street leading to the Saudi embassy as protesters march with portraits of Shia cleric on Sunday.
The envoy said Saudi Arabia “will attend the next Syria talks and we are not going to boycott them because of Iran” but he also took a swipe at Iran’s role in the search to end the almost five-year war in Syria.
The execution last weekend has heightened the Saudi-Iran regional rivalry, threatening to derail already-shaky peace efforts over the wars in Syria and Yemen.
In Istanbul, people gathered outside Saudi Arabia’s consulate holding posters of al-Nimr, and shouted “Saudi Arabia will pay the price”.
Nobakht also criticized the attacks on the Saudi diplomatic missions, saying they were unbecoming of Iranians.
Vali Nasr, a Middle East scholar and dean of Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, D.C., joined NPR’s “Morning Edition” today to discuss the deteriorating relationship between Iran and Saudi Arabia.
A scheduled Jan 18 trip by Defence Minister Khawaja Asif to Tehran, according to a diplomatic source, has become uncertain following the tiff between Saudi Arabia and Iran. The conflict arises from the vicious sectarian battle between the Sunni dominated Saudi and Iran, which is the epicentre of Shia branch of Islam.
Nobakht said Iran seeks to expand its relations with neighboring states and all countries in the world but will apply such a policy to Saudi Arabia if the latter reaches a “realistic understanding” of the Islamic Republic.
Saudi Arabia announced it was cutting ties with Tehran on Sunday after Iranian protesters set fires at the Saudi Embassy in Tehran and targeted its consulate in Mashhad.
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U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed concern Monday at the escalation in tensions between regional powers Saudi Arabia and Iran, urging both countries to avoid actions that could exacerbate the situation between them and in the region as a whole. Hua also says that the worldwide community would make sure the recently brokered Iranian nuclear deal would be implemented despite the friction between these two countries.
