Saudi Arabia executed Nimr al-Nimr last weekend after the Shiite cleric repeatedly criticized the Saudi monarchy.
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Iranian officials of all stripes condemned the attacks, and over 40 people have been arrested in connection with them.
Saudi Arabia’s execution of a prominent Shiite Muslim cleric was an inhumane and provocative act that has escalated the tensions with Iran and complicated the already tenuous effort to reach a negotiated end to the Syrian civil war.
The deterioration of relations with Saudi Arabia “will have no impact on Iran’s national development”, Nobakht said, without elaborating.
The Saudis cut diplomatic relations with Iran over the attack, suspending all flights to and from Iran.
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES – The oil-rich country of seven emirates says it will reduce the number of diplomats in Iran, recall its ambassador and focus only on business relations. Tiny Kuwait is home to both Shiites and Sunnis living in peace and has the most free-wheeling political system among all Gulf nations.
Iranian protesters responded by attacking the Saudi Arabia’s embassy in Tehran and its consulate in Mashhad.
World powers have sought to calm the tensions. Among those is Bahrain, which said Wednesday it had broken up a Shiite militant group backed by the Lebanese Hezbollah and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. Furthermore, there is little meat on the bones in terms of strategy, what will happen next, what the group will actually be doing, financing, etc. Obviously, it would be against Iran and its rise in the region and Turkey should not put itself in direct confrontation with its big neighbor.
The announcement comes after Sunni-led Saudi Arabia and Bahrain severed ties with predominantly Shiite Iran this week.
Iran’s mission at the United Nations also expressed “regret” at the fireraising and disobedience in a letter to the UN Security Council. On Monday, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said the US had raised concerns to the Saudis in advance about the consequences of executing al-Nimr. The Saudis are the largest donor to the Palestinian Authority in the Arab world, providing them some $200 million annually.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari proposed mediation during a news conference in Tehran, but also referred to the execution of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr as a “crime”.
“We are urging all sides to show some restraint and to not further inflame tensions that are on quite vivid display in the region”, he said Monday in a briefing with reporters. Saudi Arabia is a key diplomatic and economic ally of Britain, though Middle East Minister Tobias Ellwood said Britain told the kingdom about its “disappointment at the mass executions”.
Trump’s remarks come as tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia are boiling over in the Middle East. This was followed by Iran’s condemnation, and later by angry Iranian protesters storming the Saudi Embassy in Tehran, leading to an global outcry over Iran’s alleged unwillingness to ensure the safety of diplomatic missions on its soil.
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The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries failed to agree any caps on production at its annual meeting in Vienna last month, amid acrimony between Saudi Arabia and Iran, the Gulf region’s main Sunni and Shi’ite powers. It’s unclear whether Russian officials have made a formal offer to work with the two nations.
