Kuwait says it has recalled its ambassador to Iran over attacks on Saudi diplomatic missions in the Islamic Republic.
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“One does not respond to criticism by cutting off heads”, Rouhani said as he welcomed visiting Danish Foreign Minister Kristian Jensen.
Iran said on Thursday it had banned all products from Saudi Arabia from entering the country.
Often at loggerheads over regional issues, a full-blown split between Sunni-majority Saudi Arabia and Shiite-dominated Iran erupted at the weekend when Riyadh executed prominent Shiite cleric and activist Nimr al-Nimr along with 46 others. The spokesman also reiterated Tehran’s harsh criticism of Nimr’s execution.
Their recent execution of Sheikh Nimr has also revealed the hateful image of Saudi Arabia, he added. News of his execution has sparked Shiite protests from Bahrain to Pakistan.
The statement by the 15-member council condemned “in the strongest terms” the attacks which saw protesters firebomb the Saudi embassy in Tehran and its consulate in Iran’s second-biggest city Masshad. Some nations have followed the Saudis’ lead in severing or downgrading ties with Iran, while others have offered words of caution.
Iranian state media even said embassy staff have been wounded in the strike, while Sanaa residents said that a bomb fell nearly 800 yards from the embassy and that only some stones and shrapnel fell into the embassy’s yard, Reuters reported. It wasn’t immediately clear how the Kuwait-Iran diplomatic ties would be affected by the move. “All Iranian officials condemn it”, he said. Jordan summoned Tehran’s envoy to protest the attacks on Saudi missions.
Ghandour is also due to hold talks with his Egyptian counterpart Samih Shoukri on the bilateral relations and make arrangements for a proposed meeting between presidents Omer al-Bashir and Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, a date for which will be announced later on.
Iran and Saudi Arabia, which support opposing sides of the conflict in Syria, play key roles in ongoing efforts to end fighting in the country.
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“We have never sought to create tension”. That account was echoed by the embassy’s own guards, who told the New York Times that the nearest bombs landed on the home of Ali Abdullah Saleh, the former president who was overthrown in 2012.
