Indian Ocean archipelago and Saudi Arabia ally the Comoros said Friday it had cut diplomatic relations with Iran over what it termed Tehran’s “aggression” towards Riyadh.
Advertisement
Diplomatic sources said the Iran and Saudi trips had originally been mooted for past year.
Israel is quietly working to improve ties with Gulf monarchies after recent tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran in hopes of halting Iran’s influence in the region.
The Saudis have maintained that Iran is supporting the Houthis in Yemen and in that sense, the Saudi-led military campaign is a message to Iran that Yemen is a “red line”.
The decision was taken after behind-the-scene contacts by Pakistan with both countries to lower the temperature in the region after Saudi Arabia executed a prominent Shia cleric earlier this month following which Iranian protesters attacked the Saudi embassy in Tehran and its consulate prompting Riyadh to sever relations.
On January 2, Saudi Arabia announced that it has executed Sheikh Nimr, among dozens of others.
Human rights groups claim more than 3,000 civilians have died since the war began with the attack by the Houthi rebels and forces loyal to former President Ali Abdullah al-Saleh on the capital Sana’a in 2014.
Talking to about Tajikistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-Iran (TAPI) gas pipeline project, he said that Iran had completed the construction work on its side.
Maintaining the U.S.’ longstanding “partnership” with Saudi Arabia while trying to end the decades-long acrimonious relationship with Iran at the same time, will prove hard if not mutually exclusive. The talks also coincided with Shiite Iran’s effort to completely satisfy the terms of last summer’s nuclear deal.
China published its first official Arab policy paper, claiming to “support Arab countries’ struggle to uphold sovereignty and territorial integrity, pursue and safeguard national interests, and combat external interference and aggression”, Daily News Egypt reported. “It seems that the prime minister has tilted towards the GHQ while the COAS has also made some adjustments to accommodate the PM’s priorities”, the source added.
Advertisement
Adel al-Jubeir, responding to a question over the kingdom’s “terrible image problem”, put to him by Channel 4 News’ Jonathan Rugman, said: “Well on this issue we have a fundamental difference”.
