Iran’s foreign minister says Saudi Arabia has to make “a crucial choice” – either continue supporting extremists and promoting sectarian hatred or promote good neighbourliness and regional stability.
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A war with Iran is “something that we do not foresee at all, and whoever is pushing towards that is somebody who is not in their right mind”, he added.
Saudi Arabia returned Iran’s diplomats in Riyadh and Jeddah to their home country on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said Riyadh can not hide the “crime” of killing a religious cleric by severing diplomatic ties with Tehran. Several other nations have sided with Riyadh including Bahrain – where a Sunni monarch rules over a predominantly Shiite nation – and Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, both of which recalled their ambassadors to Iran.
“This deliberate action by Saudi Arabia is a violation of all global conventions that protect diplomatic missions”, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossein Jaber Ansari was quoted as saying by state TV channel IRIB, AFP reported. The centre was heavily damaged, forcing those using the facilities, the majority of whom live with severely impaired vision, to evacuate the building. They also chanted “Down with the U.S.” and “Death to Israel”, traditional Iranian slogans at protests.
Saudi Arabia doesn’t rank among Iran’s top trading partners but the ban on pilgrimages could hurt: it makes around $18 billion a year from religious tourism, and Iranians comprise one of the biggest groups of visitors. Saudi Arabia cut diplomatic relations with Iran late on Sunday, hours after protesters stormed and set fire to the Saudi Embassy in Tehran in protest against the execution.
Those attacks came after Saudi Arabia executed a prominent opposition Shia cleric Nimr al-Nimr over the weekend.
Mr Zarif, meanwhile, blamed Saudi Arabia for exacerbating the situation.
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Djiboutian Foreign Minister Mahamoud Ali Youssouf has “severed diplomatic ties with Iran”, a government statement read. Mohammed al-Nimr, the sheik’s brother, said people planned to hold a funeral Thursday, though Saudi authorities had already buried his corpse in an undisclosed cemetery.
