The decision was announced by Bahraini Media Minister Isa al-Hamadi.
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Bahrain followed Saudi Arabia’s lead and severed diplomatic ties with Iran, while the UAE downgraded its diplomatic relations with it. In addition to Kerry, other senior USA diplomats were in close contact with Saudi and Arab officials over the weekend, according to the US officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly to the delicate diplomacy.
Saudi Arabia is now cutting diplomatic ties with Iran.
The United Arab Emirates also downgraded its ties, recalling its envoy from Tehran and reducing the number of its diplomats in the Islamic republic.
Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir told Reuters in an interview that Tehran was responsible for rising tensions after the kingdom executed Shi’ite Muslim cleric Nimr al-Nimr on Saturday, describing him as a terrorist.
After the execution, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossein Jaberi Ansari said Saudi Arabia will “pay dearly” for its actions.
The agency did not identify the Russian diplomat and it was unclear from the report if Moscow had made the mediation proposal to either side.
“We are hopeful that it won’t”, Earnest said.
Iran sent a letter on Monday to the UN Security Council expressing its “regret” over attacks by protesters on Saudi missions in the Islamic republic, vowing to prevent any similar incidents in the future. He was accused of inciting violence, leading protests against the Saudi government and carrying arms.
Thousands of protesters staged a massive rally in front of the Saudi embassy in Baghdad following the execution of Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr which has split the Muslim world along sectarian lines.
Nimr had been branded an “instigator of sedition” by Saudi Arabia.
The flare-up between Iran and Saudi Arabia threatened to derail efforts to end Syria’s five-year-old civil war, where Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Arab powers support rebel groups against Iranian-backed President Bashar al-Assad.
At the State Department, spokesman John Kirby added that “there is no reason why the Syria peace process shouldn’t move forward as planned”.
In response to concerns raised by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon over the fairness of Saudi Arabia’s judicial proceedings, the kingdom’s UN Mission insisted that it had granted “fair and just trials” to those executed.
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The official Saudi Press Agency reported early Monday that a man was killed in al-Awamiya village and a child was wounded.
