Saudi Arabia wants to improve its ties with Russian Federation, a country the kingdom sees as a “great power”, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said. “Saudi Arabia has moved against our efforts and, unfortunately, they opposed the nuclear agreement”.
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For sure, the rise in sectarian tensions creates a fertile environment for the growth of ISIS.
Saudi Arabia’s execution of Nimr al-Nimr has angered Shi’ites across the Middle East and caused a major diplomatic row between mainly Shi’ite Iran and Saudi Arabia’s conservative Sunni monarchy.
Saudi Arabia severed ties with Iran on Sunday after the attacks, sparked by Saudi Arabia’s execution of a prominent opposition Shiite cleric over the weekend.
Also on Wednesday, Qatar recalled its ambassador from Iran to protest the attacks on the Saudi diplomatic missions, according to a brief report carried by the official Qatar News Agency.
“He is urging calm”.
“Enough is enough. We need our peace in the region”, he said. Iran supports Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad and reportedly backs the anti-government Hezbollah militia in Lebanon.
In response to rumours that Pakistan was also exploring options about downgrading its diplomatic relations with Iran, Foreign Office spokesman Qazi Khalilullah said, “I will not comment on rumours and speculations”.
Javad Zarif, Iran’s foreign minister (pictured above, right), criticized Saudi Arabia for its confrontational attitude and blamed it for exacerbating tensions.
Zarif reiterated that the embassy’s ransacking had no official blessing.
Oman broke its silence on the Mideast turmoil and called the Saudi diplomatic post attacks “unacceptable”, while leaving its ties to Iran untouched.
But the crude oil benchmark erased its gains and settled a few cents lower as fears rose about the global economy and the Middle East dispute looked unlikely to disrupt oil supplies immediately. “I think they are acting fairly desperately”, Krauthammer said.
This comes as Sunnis and Shiites in Iraq have spearheaded fragile cooperative efforts to tackle the threat posed by the Islamic State (ISIS).
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.
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The ministry said that Foreign Minister Wang Yi had met the head of the Western-backed opposition Syrian National Coalition (SNC).
