Saudi Arabia says to cut flights, trade with Iran, ban visits

The demonstrators chanted slogans praising their leader Moqtada al-Sadr and condemning the execution by the Riyadh authorities of Saudi Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr.

Saudi Arabia announced Sunday it was severing its ties to Iran after its embassy in Tehran was firebombed in protest at the kingdom’s execution of Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr.

Saudi Arabia said on Monday it would restore ties with Iran when Tehran stopped meddling in the affairs of other countries and pledged that Riyadh would continue to work “very hard” to support bids for peace in Syria and Yemen despite the spat, APA reports quoting Reuters. For instance, the sectarian polarization will most certainly foil Lebanon’s plans to elect a new president; just last month, both Saudi Arabia and Iran had expressed confidence in a power-sharing arrangement and such a scheme is not likely to be fulfilled with the two states at odds with each other.

Demonstrations are also being called for in the predominantly Shiite southern cities of Najaf and Basra, after Saudi Arabia executed a prominent opposition Shiite cleric convicted of terrorism charges, sparking anger in Iran and among Shiites across the region.

Iran has led global outrage against the recent Saudi executions of 47 people, with the country’s head of state Ayatollah Khamenei going as far as tweetting this comparison between Saudi Arabia and Isis. News of his execution has sparked Shiite protests from Bahrain to Pakistan.

Meawhile, Iran said Riyadh had used the embassy incident and a similar attack on its consulate in the Iranian city of Mashhad as an “excuse” to stoke tensions.

Secretary of State John Kerry has relayed American concerns directly to Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, while other US diplomats have sent the message to top Saudi officials, according to Earnest. Under prime minister Nouri al-Maliki, Sunni Iraqis were marginalised and persecuted – a sectarian crackdown now credited with fuelling the rise of Islamic State, many of whose commanders and fighters are Sunnis purged from the US-trained Iraqi army. The kingdom’s close allies in the Gulf, who also oppose Iran extending its influence in the region, would also be squeezed. Saudi Arabia is the biggest member by output in the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, while Iran is the fifth-largest in the group.

Al-Nimr was an outspoken critic of Saudi Arabia’s Sunni monarchy but denied ever calling for violence. The step is seen as stopping short of a full severing of ties.

Last year, Sudan appeared to move away from its longstanding cooperation with Iran to join a Saudi-led military campaign against Yemen’s Shiite Houthi militant group, which is backed by Tehran. Both Sudan and Bahrain have ended all relations with Iran while the United Arab Emirates, which boasts a significant Iranian population, has reduced its links with Iran.

Three years earlier he called for the oil-rich Eastern Province’s Shiite-populated Qatif and Al-Ihsaa governorates to be separated from Saudi Arabia and united with Bahrain. It said it would reduce the number of diplomats in Iran and would recall its ambassador “in the light of Iran’s continuous interference in the internal affairs of Gulf and Arab states, which has reached unprecedented levels”. That diplomatic freeze saw Iran halt pilgrims from attending the hajj in Saudi Arabia, something required of all able Muslims once in their lives.

Western powers sought to calm the tensions.