The diplomatic standoff began Saturday, when Saudi Arabia executed Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr and 46 others convicted of terror charges – the largest mass execution carried out by the kingdom since 1980.
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He said U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry had been in touch with his Iranian counterpart and U.S. diplomatic officials had been in contact with Saudi officials to convey the message.
“One does not respond to criticism by cutting off heads”, Rouhani said as he welcomed visiting Danish Foreign Minister Kristian Jensen to Tehran. Protesters angered over Nimr’s execution attacked and burned the Saudi embassy in Tehran and its consulate in the northeastern city of Mashhad, which prompted Riyadh to sever diplomatic relations with the Islamic republic.
The execution sparked new demonstrations in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province, where Shia Muslims complain of marginalization, as well as in Iraq, Bahrain and several other countries.
The United Nations worked quickly on Monday to salvage fragile worldwide bids to broker peace in Syria and Yemen from a spillover of tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran after Riyadh’s decision to cut off ties with Tehran.U.N.
Saudi Arabia’s Gulf Arab neighbors, including Bahrain, Sudan and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), have also severed ties with Iran.
The UN Security Council has also strongly condemned the attack, urging Iranian authorities “to protect diplomatic and consular property and personnel, and to respect fully their worldwide obligations in this regard”. But the royal families’ allies, beginning with the United States, should be asking whether the Salman court is checking Iran’s expansionism, as it contends, or sowing chaos in an already-stricken region while undermining itself.
“A breakdown of relations between Riyadh and Tehran could have very serious consequences for the region”, said Dujarric.
The Saudis cut diplomatic relations with Iran over the attack, suspending all flights to and from Iran. “Securing reforms to the UK’s relationship with the EU is a government priority and we would expect the prime minister to continue engaging with European leaders over the coming weeks”, she said. The government has to make an effort to respect the sovereignty of other states.
Iran backs Syrian President Bashar al-Assad against rebels while Saudi Arabia has pushed for his ouster in a civil war in which at least 250,000 people have died and more than 10 million have been displaced internally or driven overseas as refugees.
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Saudi insists peace efforts should not be affected by the dispute but has criticised Iran’s contribution to the process.
