Iran’s Foreign Ministry had earlier demanded restitution for a missile attack that state-run Islamic Republic News Agency said damaged embassy walls.
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By creating the crisis, Saudi Arabia also hopes to disrupt the warming relations between Iran and the USA, which it views as contrary to its interests.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia executed Shiite Muslim cleric Nimr al-Nimr on Saturday.
Knowing full well what the repercussions of executing Sheikh al-Nimr would be, Saudi Arabia went ahead with its plans because the potential gains, from the Saudi perspective, far outweighed the prospective fallout. Hours later, Iranian protestors set fire to the Saudi embassy in Tehran.
But whether or not they meant to raise the heat in a tense rivalry that already underpins wars across the Middle East, Saudi Arabia’s new rulers have shown no sign of regret.
Saudi Arabia severed ties with Iran on Sunday after crowds of protesters attacked two of its diplomatic posts in Iran.
Shaikh Mohamed welcomed the Saudi Deputy Crown Prince and discussed with him the special fraternal relations between the UAE and Saudi Arabia and ways to enhance them.
“Iran has called for Islamic unity in the face of Saudi sectarian hate-mongering”, Zarif wrote.
“The court did not, at all, make any distinction between whether or not a person is Shiite or Sunni”, the prince said in the interview conducted Monday and which the magazine published online Thursday night.
Protests have erupted across the region this week in the wake of Saudi Arabia’s execution of a leading Shiite cleric. “They are reviewing a crime, and a procedure, and a trial, and a sentence and carrying out the sentence”. The decision was taken in an emergency cabinet meeting with President Hassan Rouhani, ISNA said. On Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Iran was “days away” from complying with its obligations under the deal.
The council, in its extraordinary meeting in Riyadh, asserted that the Iranian statements were a direct incitement to attack the Saudi diplomatic missions, and such acts do not serve regional and worldwide peace and contravene the principles of good neighbourliness and respect for their sovereignty.
Similarly, the conflict in Yemen became yet another battleground between the two countries, with Iran supporting the Shiite-affiliated Houthis both financially and militarily, and the Saudis supporting the Sunni regime led by President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi in order to prevent Iran from establishing a strategic foothold in the Arabian Peninsula.
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Iran’s annual exports to Saudi Arabia are worth about $130 million a year and are mainly steel, cement and agricultural products.
