Jordan summoned Tehran’s ambassador on Wednesday to protest weekend attacks on Saudi missions in Iran that set off a diplomatic crisis.
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The statement, following an extraordinary ministerial meeting of the six-member group, criticised “Iranian interference in Saudi Arabian affairs” over its denunciation of Nimr al-Nimr’s execution a week ago.
The move came days after Saudi Arabia severed diplomatic and economic ties with Iran after protesters in Tehran attacked the Saudi Embassy there with rocks and Molotov cocktails. The incidents took place on Saturday as part of protests against the Saudi Arabia’s execution of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, a prominent Shia cleric.
A group of powerful Shiite militias with strong ties to Iran, including Asaib al-Haq and the Badr Brigade, demanded the government cut diplomatic ties with the kingdom, expel the ambassador and execute all Saudis held in Iraqi prisons on charges of terrorism.
“Saudi Arabia is responsible for the security of our diplomats and of our embassy in Sanaa”, he said.
China on Monday voiced concern over the Saudi-Iran row, calling on the two countries to keep calm and show restraint.
Iran on Thursday accused the Saudi-led coalition battling Shiite rebels in Yemen of hitting its embassy there in an overnight airstrike, but the building bore no visible damage.
The decision, announced in a tweet by Saudi’s General Authority for Civil Aviation, followed Riyadh earlier cutting diplomatic ties with Tehran. Saudi Arabia, the region’s largest Sunni power, opposes the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and backs the toppled government in Yemen.
Analysts had feared the dispute could boil over into the proxy wars between the two Mideast rivals in Yemen and in Syria.
United Nations envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed has called for a new round of talks on January 14 but the sides have yet to confirm that they will attend.
Saudi Arabia on the other hand, as demonstrated by the execution of Sheikh Nimr, seems to see sectarian tension as a positive benefit for its foreign and domestic priorities.
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The growing Middle East tensions have further reduced expectations of any action by OPEC to try to shore up oil prices. Washington was also silent during the cleric’s years-long imprisonment.
