“The Saudi government has taken a unusual action and cut off its diplomatic relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran to cover its crimes of beheading a religious leader in its country”, Rouhani said. Within hours, the United Arab Emirates announced it would downgrade ties to Tehran to the level of the charge d’affaires, while other nations issued statements criticizing Iran.
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Turkey’s foreign ministry on Tuesday expressed concern over mounting tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran following the execution of a prominent Shi’ite cleric, calling for calm and a return to diplomatic language.
Tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia have spiralled since the execution of a Shi’ite cleric in Saudi Arabia.
Diplomatic tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran, which began with the kingdoms execution of al-Nimr and later saw attacks on Saudi diplomatic posts in the Islamic Republic, have seen countries around the world respond.
Also on Wednesday, Oman broke its silence on the Mideast turmoil and called the Saudi diplomatic post attacks “unacceptable”, while leaving its ties to Iran untouched.
“The kingdom of Saudi Arabia reiterates that all convicted persons were granted fair and just trials without any consideration to their intellectual, racial or sectarian affiliation and that the final rulings against them was reached based on their own criminal and illegal actions”, said a statement from the Saudi mission.
Saudi Arabia’s U.N. Ambassador Abdallah al-Moualimi told reporters late Monday at U.N. headquarters that his country backs efforts to bring peace to Syria and Yemen and its break in diplomatic relations with Iran should have no effect on upcoming talks.
“The State Department put out a report detailing the long list of concerns that the U.S. has with Saudi Arabia’s human rights record, and certainly mass executions would rate highly in that list of concerns and we certainly would condemn”, he said.
The White House on Monday urged Saudi Arabia and Iran to not let their dispute derail efforts to end the Syrian civil war. Some 3,000 demonstrators rallied in Tehran on Monday, chanting anti-Saudi slogans and burning USA and Israeli flags.
Bahrain, a tiny island off the coast of Saudi Arabia, is predominantly Shiite, but ruled by Sunnis.
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United Nations deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said de Mistura “hopes that the adverse consequences of the tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran do not affect the peace process with the Syrians”. Mohammed al-Nimr, the sheikh’s brother, said people planned to hold a funeral Thursday for the cleric, though Saudi authorities already buried his corpses in an undisclosed cemetery.
