Arab coalition denies striking Iran’s Yemen embassy

The SPA report concluded, “The GCC Ministerial Council urged the worldwide community to take necessary measures to compel Iran to respect the principle of good neighborliness, to stop its activities destabilizing the region, to stop its support for terrorism, to not interfere in the internal affairs of the GCC countries and the region’s countries, and to not use or threaten to use force”.

The Washington Institute published an article by Matthew Levitt, Director of the Stein Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence, last May on Iran and its sabotage arm in the Arab region Hezbollah’s threats to Saudi Arabia. Jubeir also said his country had asked the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, of which Iran is a member, to convene an extraordinary meeting to discuss the aggression against its embassy. The council agreed to establish an effective mechanism to address the Iranian interference. Al-Jubeir said that the GCC Foreign Ministers had concluded a unifi ed view regarding the recent aggression on the Saudi embassy and consulate in Iran, noting that they discussed the issue “deeply”.

The council expressed its full support for the measures taken by Saudi Arabia to respond to the attacks on its diplomatic missions in Iran, stressing that the GCC countries will take further appropriate measures.

In a letter to the U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Friday, Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, complained about Saudi Arabia’s “provocations” toward Tehran, including the execution of Nimr and what he described as “persistent mistreatment” of Iranian pilgrims visiting Mecca.

Sunni-ruled Bahrain joined Saudi Arabia in cutting ties with Iran, a mutual foe and the region’s preeminent Shi’ite power, after demonstrators stormed the Saudi embassy in Tehran. “We are evaluating Iran’s moves and taking steps to counter them.things will be clearer in the near future”, he said. Still, it is significant in that the six GCC countries – Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – are now officially on the same page.

A row has been raging for days between Shi’ite Muslim power Iran and the conservative Sunni kingdom since Saudi Arabia executed cleric Nimr al-Nimr, an opponent of the ruling dynasty who had demanded greater rights for the Shi’ite minority. These statements were a direct incitement for launching the attacks on the diplomatic missions of Saudi Arabia.