Last Saturday, Iranian protesters ransacked and set fire to the Saudi Embassy in Tehran.
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Shia-dominated areas in eastern Saudi Arabia, the home of al-Nimr, held a three-day mourning period for the cleric.
Iran’s foreign ministry said Thursday that Saudi jets “deliberately” struck its embassy in an air raid that injured staff. “This deliberate action by Saudi Arabia is a violation of all worldwide conventions that protect diplomatic missions”, foreign ministry spokesman Hossein Jaber Ansari was quoted as saying by state television.
Shortly after the unrest, Saudi Arabia quickly severed diplomatic ties with Iran.
Fellow Gulf Co-operation Council member Bahrain followed suit, while the United Arab Emirates downgraded its ties and Kuwait recalled its envoy.
The latest tensions threaten efforts to end conflicts in Syria and Yemen, where Sunni Muslim power Saudi Arabia and Shi’ite-led Iran support opposing sides.
Correction, Jan. 7, 2016: This post originally stated that the Iranian government had banned citizens from undertaking the annual Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca.
Retno said that she had also discussed the issue with Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) secretary-general Iyad Ameen Madani to find ways for Indonesia to contribute to ease the situation. Egypt cut ties with Iran in 1989.
Iran’s government on Thursday banned all imports of products made in Saudi Arabia, according to student news agency ISNA.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia said it had shot down a missile fired into the kingdom from nearby Yemen on Thursday morning.
On Tuesday, Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani accused Saudi Arabia of focusing attention on the incident to “cover its crime” of executing Nimr.
The United Nations says the war in Yemen, the Arab world’s poorest country, has killed almost 2,800 civilians since March.
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“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.
