One day after Saudi Arabia’s embassy was set on fire in Tehran by protesters, Saudi ally Bahrain has cut ties with Iran and given Iranian diplomats 48 hours to leave the country.
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Mr Ellwood said: “I am deeply disturbed by the escalation in tensions in the last 24 hours in the Middle East”. The Shiite cleric, Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, was among a group of 47 people who were executed.
Al-Nimr was a central figure in Arab Spring-inspired protests by Saudi Arabia’s Shiite minority until his arrest in 2012.
In Bahrain, police fired tear gas and birdshot at demonstrators on Sitra Island, south of the capital, Manama, wounding some.
Jubeir said the attack in Tehran was in line with what he said were earlier Iranian assaults on foreign embassies there and with Iranian policies of destabilising the region by creating “terrorist cells” in Saudi Arabia.
It also represents just the latest turmoil in the two countries’ long-rocky relationship, which saw diplomatic ties between them severed from 1988 to 1991.
On Monday, the United Arab Emirates announced that it will “downgrade the level of its diplomatic representation” in Iran, recalling its ambassador from Tehran.
The repercussions of the rift between two of the Middle East’s major powers widened late Monday, as Saudi authorities cancelled all commercial air traffic between Iran and the kingdom.
Oil prices were volatile Monday after Saudi Arabia severed diplomatic ties with Iran.
Prime Minister David Cameron has described the tensions provoked by the execution of a prominent Shiite cleric in Saudi Arabia as “hugely concerning”.
The United Nations, the United States and the European Union have condemned the executions, which the Saudis carried out against people it said were guilty of terrorism-related charges.
In Tehran, a protest outside the Saudi Embassy early Sunday quickly grew violent as protesters threw stones and gasoline bombs at the embassy, setting part of the building ablaze, according to Gen. Hossein Sajedinia, the country’s top police official, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.
“Iran is a great country in the region and should be treated with respect”, he said.
Iran’s supreme leader warned Saudi Arabia it would face “quick consequences” for the execution. They, then, headed for the building of the embassy.
World powers have sought to calm the tensions.
“We will continue to urge leaders across the region to take affirmative steps to calm tensions”, Mr Kirby said.
The protesters chanted slogans against the Saudi government. “We urge Tehran and Riyadh, and other Persian Gulf states, to show restraint”. The attacks were in response to clashes between Saudi security forces and Iranian pilgrims during the annual hajj pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia.
Sheikh Nimr was an outspoken critic of Saudi Arabia’s Sunni monarchy but had denied ever calling for violence.
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Sewell Chan contributed reporting from London, Kareem Fahim from Cairo, Ben Hubbard from Baghdad, and Ivan Nechepurenko from Moscow.
