Saudi Arabia’s mission to the United Nations on Monday defended the execution of 47 men including a prominent Shiite cleric that outraged Iran, saying all of the accused had been granted fair trials.
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The President once again deemed the attack on Saudi diplomatic buildings in Tehran and Mashahd “wrong and unlawful”, calling on the ministries of Intelligence and Interior to take decisive measures concerning the officials who might have failed in their duties to manage the rally.
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.
“For the past two-and-a-half years, Saudi Arabia has opposed Iran’s diplomacy”, Zarif said at a joint press conference in Tehran with visiting Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari.
Dubai also restricted its diplomatic ties with Iran following the Riyadh’s statement which said that kingdom has cut off its diplomatic ties with Tehran.
Bahrain, which frequently accuses Iran of stoking unrest among its majority Shia population, has been particularly critical and announced it is closing its embassy and ordering all Iranian diplomats to leave the country within 48 hours. Arab states Bahrain and Sudan have also cut ties with Iran, while the United Arab Emirates partially downgraded its relations with Iran.
A spokeswoman for the Foreign Office said the 2011 document was a “general policy guide” but pointed out that Saudi Arabia is listed as a “country of concern” in a report published past year. “We will not allow Iran to do harm to our citizens or those of our allies and so we will react”, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al Jubeir told Reuters on Monday, signalling Riyadh would not back down.
Iran said Saudi Arabia made a “strategic mistake” that could only further divide the region and fuel militancy during crucial battles against the Islamic State and efforts to end Syria’s civil war.
JORDAN: Overwhelmingly Sunni Jordan is a close ally of Saudi Arabia in the region and a beneficiary of Gulf aid.
“We will also be cutting off all air traffic to and from Iran”.
Since the revolution, the Gulf’s Sunni governments have always been concerned that Iran would seek to manipulate Shia populations across the Middle East, whom are often viewed as “fifth columns”.
“Now if things continue to heat up, I’m sure hardliners would find ways to make inroads on the political scene, especially after the setbacks they’ve felt over the previous year or so”, he says.
US Secretary of State John Kerry called his counterparts in each country in a bid to ease the tensions and the United Nations moved to shelter peace efforts in Syria and Yemen from the diplomatic storm.
“Kazakhstan stands for a political solution and a dialogue as the only true way to resolve this situation”, read the statement.
Saudi Arabia’s U.N. Ambassador Abdallah al-Moualimi said late Monday tha tSaudi Arabia will attend the January 25 talks in Geneva on Syria. He said the kingdom’s ‘security…is an integral part of Egypt’s security’.
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The assault on the embassy could have been planned by hardline groups within the establishment and adds “fuel to the fire” of internal conflict, said Mahjoob Zweiri, a professor of Middle Eastern politics who studies Iran at Qatar University in Doha. But Tehran hopes its newly ratified nuclear deal with world powers will bring an end to sanctions and give the country a massive injection of oil revenue.
