Jaber said the Saudi regime used the incident as a pretext to cut off its relations with Iran, and described the move as their “double mistake”.
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Although the USA should continue to seek good relations with Iran, it must now conduct a balancing act to allay the concerns of its Arab allies in the Gulf while showing some toughness in relation to Iran, which in fact is needed to preserve the Iran deal and prevent another regional crisis.
The Swiss Ministry, in a statement dated on Monday, said that “these mass executions risk reviving the confessional tensions which have already caused far too many victims in this region of the world”.
To begin with, there was no love lost between Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shiite Iran, as their bilateral relations have always seesawed between fragile normalcy and open animosity. Saudi allies Bahrain and Sudan have followed suit and the United Arab Emirates downgraded its ties with Tehran.
The nuclear deal struck last July between Iran and five other world powers was seen as a diplomatic triumph by its authors but it was vehemently opposed by Israel.
Russian Federation has also offered to act as a mediator, and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has been speaking with both Zarif and Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir.
In Yemen, Riyadh is leading a military intervention against Iran-backed Shiite rebels who have seized control of large parts of the country.
FILE – Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. It has previously condemned the storming of the missions and stepped up its protest by summoning the Iranian ambassador.
Zarif added to Iranian criticism of Saudi Arabia at Wednesday’s news conference, saying the Saudi government needs to stop “provoking tension”. “In actuality this could have a tremendous impact on negotiations for a solution to the civil war in Syria; it will certainly aggravate the Sunni Shia conflict in Iraq, it may also escalate the fighting in Yemen between Saudis and Houthis who are supported by Iran”, Ben-Meir told Sputnik.
Media reports in Tehran said Oman’s foreign minister was expected in the Iranian capital on Wednesday.
The Iraqi government was trying to walk a middle line between Iran and the Arab countries in order to keep the momentum on the campaign against Islamic State, said Mona Alami, a Beirut-based analyst at the Atlantic Center think-tank.
Jaafari, who was to hold talks later with Rouhani, said Iraq was seeking a potential diplomatic role to help resolve the crisis and echoed the concerns about sectarianism.
In eastern Saudi Arabia, where al-Nimr agitated for greater political rights for Shiites in the Sunni-ruled kingdom, three days of mourning over his death were to end Wednesday night.
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Iranian officials criticized the embassy attack and police arrested several individuals involved, but the Saudi foreign ministry announced on Sunday it was cutting diplomatic ties with the Islamic Republic following the angry protests in Iran.
