Saudi Arabia on January 3 gave Iran’s ambassador to Riyadh 48 hours to leave the country after protesters in the Shiite-majority country stormed the Saudi Embassy and set parts of it on fire.
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Earlier, Iran accused Saudi Arabia of using cluster bombs in a series of air strikes on Thursday which, it said, killed five people. Thus, Turkish-Iranian relations got sharpened because of tense relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia and Iran are longtime regional rivals which back opposite sides in the wars in Syria and Yemen. A Saudi-led coalition has been carrying out airstrikes in Yemen and the embassy attack reportedly took place during the bombing.
Before his arrest in July 2012, al-Nimr led mass protests against Saudi authorities in the country’s eastern Qatif province.
The Saudi-led coalition, which is supported by the U.S., is targeting Houthi rebels aligned with former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who resigned in 2012 following a popular uprising against his rule.
The diplomatic standoff between Iran and Saudi Arabia began on Saturday, when the kingdom executed al-Nimr and 46 others convicted of terror charges – the largest mass execution it has carried out since 1980.
Residents and witnesses in the capital Sanaa said there was no damage to the embassy building in Hadda district.
Tehran’s accusation came amid a rise in tensions between Tehran and Riyadh in recent days after attacks on Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran.
Iran’s government on Thursday banned all imports of products made in Saudi Arabia, according to student news agency ISNA.
Iranian deputy foreign minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian said a rocket had fallen near the embassy, but on Thursday the building was still standing and there were no visible signs of damage. On Jan. 5, Iran President Hassan Rouhani said that Saudi Arabia’s move to sever ties with his country couldn’t “cover its crime” of executing al-Nimr.
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Zarif accused Saudi Arabia of “opposing” Iran’s diplomacy in the region for the last for two-and-a-half years, and of undermining Iran’s interests by holding down oil prices low and resisting Iran’s nuclear agreement.
