Anger remained palpable on the streets of the Lebanese capital, Beirut, and in Bahrain and Baghdad, hours after the Saudi embassy in Tehran was set ablaze by protesters angered by the execution of the senior cleric.
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Al Jazeera’s James Bays, reporting from NY, said diplomats at the United Nations have expressed worries over the escalating war of words.
The statement was published on Monday afternoon.
The UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs has handed the Iranian Ambassador a note of protest.
Sudan’s Foreign Ministry said the decision to sever ties with Iran will take effect immediately. Angry protesters in Tehran responded by ransacking the Saudi embassy.
Saudi Arabia severed all diplomatic ties with Iran on Sunday. They have also parried in Bahrain, where a Sunni ruler governs a mostly Shiite population, and in Iraq, where Iran holds considerable influence over the predominantly Shiite government; and traded barbs over the death toll of the stampede at the Hajj last September.
Iran said this would not distract from Riyadh’s “big mistake” in executing the cleric, the IRNA agency reported. It is unclear if Russian Federation has made an offer to mediate to either side. Forty people were arrested and investigators were pursuing other suspects, Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dowlatabadi said, according to the semi-official ISNA news agency.
The Independent says hundreds of armoured vehicles were sent to the Saudi city of Qatif over the weekend to quash Shia resistance groups who had called for people to join protests against the execution.
Bahrain and Sudan followed suit by also cutting ties with Iran on Monday. The pilgrimage is required of every able-bodied Muslim once in a person’s life. He spoke during a weekly press conference in Tehran.
Stating that Nimr represented the hope for a possible two societies in Saudi Arabia, Karabulut said executing him is akin to killing freedom, justice and fairness. Authorities offered no details on who they suspected in the shooting. Like Saudi Arabia, Bahrain is ruled by a Sunni regime, though the majority of Bahrain’s population is Shiite. His execution on Saturday has sparked outrage among Shiites across the region.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei hailed al-Nimr as a “martyr” and warned that the Sunni kingdom would face “divine revenge”.
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The execution of Nimr provoked protests among Shi’ites across the region and Iranian protesters stormed the Saudi embassy in Tehran, setting fires and causing damage, prompting Riyadh to cut ties and inflaming an already heated rivalry.
