Bahrain followed the lead of its close ally Saudi Arabia in severing ties to Iran and canceling flights this week in response to protester attacks on Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran.
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Bahrain, Sudan, Djibouti, Kuwait and the UAE have also rallied to Saudi Arabia’s side, breaking off or downgrading relations with Iran in recent days.
On January 2, Saudi Arabia announced that it has executed Sheikh Nimr, among dozens of others.
Iranian state media even said embassy staff have been wounded in the strike, while Sanaa residents said that a bomb fell nearly 800 yards from the embassy and that only some stones and shrapnel fell into the embassy’s yard, Reuters reported.
Jan 9, 2016- Iran’s foreign minister has complained to the United Nations about Saudi Arabia’s “provocations” toward Tehran, as a diplomatic crisis between the region’s two major powers entered its second week. Tehran is providing military assistance to close ally President Bashar Assad against rebel groups, some backed by Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia’s soccer federation says its clubs will not play Asian Champions League matches in Iran amid rising diplomatic tension.
The Saudi-led coalition fighting rebels in Yemen on Thursday denied an accusation by Tehran that its warplanes had targeted the Iranian Embassy there.
A memorial service is underway for a Shiite sheikh executed by Saudi Arabia last weekend.
“The policies of the Saudi regime will have a domino effect and they will be buried under the avalanche they have created”, Brigadier General Hossein Salami, was quoted as saying by the Fars news agency on the sidelines of a ceremony held in Tehran to commemorate Nimr.
Speaking to The Economist, Prince Mohammed defended al-Nimr’s execution.
Qatar has recalled its ambassador from Iran to protest attacks on the Saudi Embassy in Tehran and Consulate in Mashhad, violence stemming from the Saudi execution of an opposition Shiite cleric.
Although an Associated Press reporter in Sanaa said he saw no damage to the Iranian embassy there on Thursday, the provocation of a nearby strike was enough to prompt further retaliation from the Iranian government.
That report called “Iranian hostile and provocative statement on the judicial rulings implements (in Saudi Arabia) against a number of terrorists” as “direct incitements for launching attacks on the diplomatic missions”.
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Mass protests took place in Iran following the said execution. And human rights activists said al-Nimr’s trial was tightly controlled and unfair.
