Riyadh severed diplomatic ties and air links with Tehran after angry crowds set fire to its embassy in the Iranian capital and its consulate in Mashhad.
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Tensions are escalating in the Middle East after Saudi Arabia executed 47 people, including a prominent Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr.
“We strongly condemn our president being directly targeted in certain articles in Iranian outlets controlled by the Iranian authorities… and demand that these articles cease immediately”, the Turkish foreign ministry said in a statement.
Trade between Saudi Arabia and Iran is small compared with the size of their economies, but tens of thousands of Iranians travel to the kingdom every year to complete the haj as well as Umrah pilgrimages made outside of haj season. Arab states Bahrain and Sudan have also cut ties with Iran, while the United Arab Emirates partially downgraded its relations with Iran.
Brushing aside the Iranian apology, Saudi Arabia’s UN Ambassador Abdullah al-Mouallimi tied the normalization of his country’s relations with Iran to the latter’s future conduct. Those attacks came after Saudi Arabia executed al-Nimr on January 2.
Iran has responded angrily to the diplomatic moves, insisting it had no hand in the violent protests that followed the execution.
The tensions put the Obama administration in an awkward position as it works for a closer relationship with Iran at the risk of alienating Saudi Arabia, one of its most trusted allies in the region.
Zarif said Saudi Arabia was fueling tension in the region while Tehran was trying to defuse it.
As Iraq fights its war against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria group that took over swathes of the country in 2014, partners offering their support against the jihadists have already been jockeying for influence on its soil.
“We believe diplomacy and negotiations are the best way to solve problems between countries”, he added.
After the war, the Iraqi regime switched from Sunni to Shiite and Iran’s influence in the region grew dramatically, much to Saudi Arabia’s alarm.
The council also condemned Iran’s blatant interferences in the internal affairs of Saudi Arabia, particularly the Iranian government’s hostile and provocative statements on the sentences carried out by Saudi Arabia against a number of persons convicted by Saudi courts of terrorism.
“There are rising stockpiles and the tension between Iran and Saudi Arabia make any deal on production unlikely”, said Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets.
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While the deterioration in the relationship between Saudi Arabia and Iran has anxious investors, the surplus of oil in the global market remains a bigger threat, according to Mehdi Asali, Iran’s national representative to OPEC.
