RIYADH, Saudi Arabia-The diplomatic crisis surrounding Saudi Arabia and Iran widened on Tuesday as Kuwait recalled its ambassador to Tehran and Bahrain severed air links in the face of growing worldwide concern.
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Saudi Arabia cut diplomatic ties to Iran over the storming of two diplomatic posts in the country following the kingdom’s execution of a top Shiite cleric who was also an opposition figure.
Within hours of the embassy attack, Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani called the violence “totally unjustified” but accused Saudi Arabia Tuesday of focusing attention on the incident to “cover its crime” of executing Nimr.
“The members of the Security Council condemned in the strongest possible terms the attacks against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s embassy in Tehran, and its Consulate General in Mashhad in the Islamic Republic of Iran, which resulted in intrusions into the diplomatic and consular premises, causing serious damage”, said the council statement.
The Saudis must have expected the demonstrations against its embassy in Tehran, yet it retaliated by recalling its diplomats, expelling Iran’s representatives and severing diplomatic relations. Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said late Monday that the hostility between the two major Muslim powers would only further escalate problems in a “powder keg” region.
“This responsibility has been given to us and we have been active from the early moments to lessen tensions to prevent a disaster from happening that could affect the entire region”, he said.
Saudi Arabia and Iran are longtime regional rivals which back opposite sides in the wars in Syria and Yemen.
The tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran are often characterized as sectarian – that is, Iran and its Shia allies versus Saudi Arabia and its Sunni brethren.
US Secretary of State John Kerry has made repeated calls for calm to both Iranian and Saudi leaders.
Javad Zarif, Iran’s foreign minister (pictured above, right), criticized Saudi Arabia for its confrontational attitude and blamed it for exacerbating tensions. Its soldiers are now fighting in Yemen as part of the Saudi-led coalition against Shia Houthi rebels.
“The Iranian support for Sheikh Nimr will be welcomed by many Shia, even those who do not agree with the Iranian system itself, because they see virtually no one else speaking up for them”, said Jane Kinninmont of the London-based Chatham House think tank.
Officials have not said how Nimr was put to death, but beheading is common in the conservative Sunni Muslim kingdom, which has since cut diplomatic ties with predominantly Shiite Iran.
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The Iranian ambassador to Saudi Arabia Hossein Sadeghi was quoted on state television as saying that anger at Nimr’s execution was natural but the response was not.
