Ibrahim al-Jaafari was speaking on Wednesday in a joint press conference with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who appeared to indicate that Tehran was open to resolving the stand-off.
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President Hassan Rouhani asked Iran’s judiciary on Wednesday to urgently prosecute the people who attacked the Saudi embassy in Tehran in protest at the kingdom’s execution of a prominent Shi’ite cleric.
No group has come forward to claim responsibility for the attack on the Saudi Defense Ministry site, though Iran was quickly mentioned as a likely suspect.
Bahrain, Sudan, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Jordan and Egypt have moved to support Saudi Arabia in recent days, while Syria’s president Bashar Assad and Iraq’s Shiite-led government have pledged support to Iran.
“With relations between Opec kingpins Saudi Arabia and Iran at a historic low point, it solidifies an already-unlikely scenario that Opec might cut output”, said Alia Moubayed at Barclays. While Saudi Arabia sees itself as the guardian of the world’s Sunni Muslims, Iran sees itself as the guardian of the Shia.
But analysts say he has resisted pressure from Iranian-backed Shi’ite militias, politicians and protesters to close the newly reopened Saudi embassy in Baghdad.
The executions have sparked global protests, including a violent attack on the Saudi Arabian embassy in Tehran, Iran.
Following the assault on the Saudi diplomatic mission, Saudi Arabia immediately severed ties with Tehran, uniting Sunni Arab allies in the region against Iran.
The worldwide community must hasten to mediate and urge the two countries to meet halfway, with the United States in the lead.
The twins have travelled to Iran on several occasions to obtain financial and logistical support, relying on their relations with “terrorist elements” that have strong ties with the Revolutionary Guard and Hezbollah, the statement said.
Even before this latest falling-out, Saudi Arabia and Iran were sworn rivals vying for regional supremacy.
Since Saudi Arabia severed ties to Iran, a host of its allies have cut or reduced their ties as well.
Still, a senior Iranian oil official said the country could moderate oil export increases once the sanctions are lifted to avoid putting prices under further pressure.
Shamkhani also expressed regret that certain countries are hiring foreign mercenaries to kill civilians in Yemen and exacerbate insecurity across the region. State media in Iran showed still photographs it said were of the diplomats arriving in Tehran on a Meraj Airlines jet.
He was arrested in 2012 after calling for two Saudi governorates to be separated from the kingdom.
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Jaafari, who was to hold talks later with Rouhani, said Iraq was seeking a potential diplomatic role to help resolve the crisis and echoed the concerns about sectarianism.
