Saudi Arabia, neighbours cut ties with Iran over cleric row

Saudi Foreign Minister Adel alJubeir made the announcement late on Sunday adding that Iranian diplomats should leave the country within 48 hours.  Saudi also recalled all its  diplomatic personnel in Iran. These measures come in the wake of the Saturday attack on the kingdom’s embassy in Tehran and a consulate, which in itself was caused by Saudi’s execution of Iranian Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr and 46 others. 

This was Saudi’s largest execution in over 35 years, but the act opened up the sectarian divisions gripping the region. Shiite protesters took to the streets from Bahrain to Pakistan while Arab allies of Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia quickly lined up behind the kingdom. 

The standoff illustrates the kingdom’s new aggressiveness under King Salman. During his reign, Saudi Arabia has led a coalition fighting Shiite rebels in Yemen and staunchly opposed regional Shiite power Iran, even as Tehran struck a nuclear deal with world powers.  Al-Jubeir told a news conference in Riyadh that the Iranian regime has “a long record of violations of foreign diplomatic missions,” dating back to the occupation of the U.S. Embassy in 1979, and such incidents constitute “a flagrant violation of all international agreements,” according to the official Saudi Press Agency. 

While the split between Sunnis and Shiites dates back to the early days of Islam and disagreements over the successor to the Prophet Muhammad, those divisions have only grown as they intertwine with regional politics, with both Iran and Saudi Arabia vying to be the Middle-East’s top power. 

Meanwhile, Russia has offered to mediate between the two countries.

Saudi Arabia used the embassy attack as a pretext to fuel tensions, and Iran was committed to protecting its foreign diplomatic missions, Iran’s foreign ministry said. “Iran has acted in accordance with its  obligations to control the broad wave of popular emotion that arose,” ministry spokesman Hossein Jaberi Ansari said. “Saudi thrives on prolonging tensions andhas used this incident as an excuse to fuel the tensions,” he added.