News of the execution of Nimr al-Nimr-a vocal critic of Saudi Arabia’s ruling royal family whose death sentence was carried out despite warnings from Tehran that the action would have repercussions-prompted demonstrators to attack, then set fire to, the Saudi Embassy in Tehran.
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According to the official Iranian news agency IRNA, Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari was due in Tehran Wednesday for talks on the latest developments.
Nobakht also criticized the attacks on the Saudi diplomatic missions, saying they were unbecoming of Iranians. The United Arab Emirates announced it would downgrade ties to Tehran to the level of the charge d’affaires, while other nations issued statements criticising Iran. At the same time, Rouhani said: “Saudi Arabia can not cover its crime of having cut off the head of a cleric by cutting relations” with Iran. This prompted protestors in Shia-dominated Iran to storm the Saudi embassy in Teheran, an action that wasn’t apparently encouraged by the government.
The latest crisis between regional rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia deepened Tuesday, four days after it erupted with the execution of Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has spoken repeatedly in the last day to Saudi and Iranian officials to encourage dialogue and plans to call other officials in the region, the U.S. State Department said on Tuesday. “The members of the Security Council condemned in the strongest possible terms the attacks against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s embassy in Tehran, and its Consulate General in Mashhad in the Islamic Republic of Iran, which resulted in intrusions into the diplomatic and consular premises, causing serious damage”, said the council statement.
Kuwait said the embassy attacks “represent a flagrant breach of worldwide agreements and norms and a grave violation of Iran’s global commitments”.
The Government was criticised in 2014 when it emerged that Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Minister for Jobs Richard Bruton did not raise concerns about human rights during their political engagements on a trade mission to Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
“It is not the moment for the Iranians to detonate mines in the Gulf” region as they await an effective lifting of sanctions and are about to start exporting oil again, said the diplomat.
The Iranian president, however, stressed that Iran is seeking good relations with its neighbors, including Saudi Arabia.
This creates a fundamental disagreement of governance models that is at the core of the rift between the two countries-much more so than the Sunni-Shiite difference.
Keane added that Saudi Arabia’s recent decision to form a 34-nation coalition to fight terrorism is also the result of the Saudi leaders’ outlook on the region. It has faced low-level unrest since 2011 Arab Spring-inspired protests by Shiites seeking more political rights.
Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard said Saudi Arabia’s “medieval act of savagery” in executing the cleric would lead to the “downfall” of the country’s monarchy.
Keane believes the “accelerant” for this increasingly tense strategic environment has been the nuclear deal struck this summer between the United States, along with five other world powers, and Iran.
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No group claimed Monday’s attacks, and their link to the execution of Saudi cleric Nimr al-Nimr is not proven, but the authorities moved quickly to call for calm.
