Ibrahim al-Jaafari was speaking on Wednesday in a joint press conference with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who appeared to indicate that Tehran was open to resolving the stand-off.
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Iranian protesters responded by attacking the Saudi Arabia’s embassy in Tehran and its consulate in Mashhad.
Iran lashed out again at Saudi Arabia for the execution on Tuesday, with President Hassan Rouhani accusing Riyadh of seeking to “cover its crime” by severing ties.
Kuwait said today the embassy attacks “represent a flagrant breach of worldwide agreements and norms and a grave violation of Iran’s global commitments”.
USA officials have privately acknowledged that Saudi Arabia’s mass executions and other human rights abuses, including reported widespread civilian casualties from its military intervention in Yemen, have raised hard diplomatic issues.
Powerful Iran-backed Shia militia called on the Iraqi prime minister, Haider al-Abadi – a Shia Muslim who has staked his credibility on efforts to reconcile with Sunnis – to shut a Saudi embassy that reopened only last month after decades of strained ties.
Longstanding frictions between the Middle East’s foremost Sunni and Shia Muslim powers exploded into a full-blown diplomatic crisis at the weekend when Riyadh executed Shia cleric and activist Nimr al-Nimr along with 46 others.
“Sheikh al-Nimr spent his whole life inviting people to Islam through peaceful dialogue, engagement and use of civil capacities and he was truly opposed to armed activities or assassinations”, he added. The Islamic Republic will reportedly add an additional 500,000 barrels a day to the world’s supply within weeks of the restrictions being removed.
Iran and Saudi Arabia are both key figures in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.
“With relations between Opec kingpins Saudi Arabia and Iran at a historic low point, it solidifies an already-unlikely scenario that Opec might cut output”, said Alia Moubayed at Barclays.
Tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia have spiralled since the execution of a Shi’ite cleric in Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia cut diplomatic ties with Iran on Sunday after protesters hit the Saudi embassy in Tehran.
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“The coalition command confirmed that these (Iranian) allegations are false and void, stressing that it does not carry out any operations in the vicinity of the embassy or near it”, a statement on the state Saudi news agency SPA said late on Thursday.
