The execution immediately drew outrage from the Shiite world and culminated in an Iranian mob torching the Saudi Arabian embassy in Tehran and clashes between the Shiite majority in Bahrain and the police in the Sunni-run country on January 3.
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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.
On Sunday, Saudi Arabia broke off diplomatic relations with Iran after attacks on Saudi diplomatic posts in Iran, which followed Riyadh’s execution on Saturday of a prominent Shia cleric.
Since Saudi Arabia severed ties to Iran, a host of its allies have cut or reduced their ties as well.
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. The Saudis have called the claim “not credible” and called for an investigation, and, indeed, early reports from witnesses say the strike was not aimed at the embassy.
Iran said Thursday it would protest to the UN Security Council after it accused Saudi warplanes of deliberately bombing its embassy in the Yemeni capital Sanaa.
“There is absolutely no link between this fabricated scenario and the Islamic Republic of Iran”, Abdollahian said.
Meanwhile, the Foreign Ministry’s director general for multilateral affairs, Hasan Kleib, said that Indonesia, home to the world’s most numerous Muslim population, should keep intensifying communication with other countries to explore possible forms of dispute settlement.
AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP/Getty Images Supporters of Iraqi Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr wave their national flag and hold posters of Nimr during a demonstration in Baghdad on Monday. An Associated Press reporter who reached the Iranian Embassy in Sanaa on Thursday just after the government announcement that it had been hit saw no damage to the building.
A Houthi militant carries computer component out of the Chamber of Trade and Industry headquarters after it was hit by a Saudi-led air strike in Yemen’s capital Sanaa.
On Tuesday, Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani accused Saudi Arabia of focusing attention on the incident to “cover its crime” of executing Nimr.
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UNITED NATIONS, United States-Iran told the United Nations on Friday that it does not want to escalate tensions in the Middle East, even as it took a swipe at Saudi Arabia for “sectarian hate-mongering”.
