Arab foreign ministers accuse Iran of undermining regional security

Saudi Arabia may take further measures against Iran, in addition to the severance of diplomatic ties that occurred last week, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubair said Saturday.

Arab League Chief Nabil Elaraby said the region’s foreign ministers will discuss the “steps” they can take against Iran in future meetings over the next two months.

“We put the responsibility for this attack on Iran, because of its violation of global law and the Geneva conventions relating to the protection of diplomatic bases”.

The council, which includes Arab League members Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, criticized what it described as Iranian interference in the internal affairs of Saudi Arabia and the region.

It includes Iran, Syria, Yemen and Saudi Arabia – all now at war with each other in proxy forms.

The senior official noted that Saudi Arabia’s policies are influenced by the Israeli regime, which seeks to incite insecurity, chaos and turmoil in the region. In particular, the Saudi embassy in the capital Tehran and the consulate in the city of Mashhad were attacked, after which Riyadh broke off diplomatic ties with Tehran on January 3.

“An emergency meeting of OIC foreign ministers has been summoned in Jeddah where Pakistan would present important proposals to reduce Iran-Saudi tensions”. It said Pakistan also expressed its readiness to offer its offices to brotherly Muslim countries for resolution of their differences through peaceful dialogue and reconciliation.

The chief of Iran’s Basij (volunteer forces) Brigadier General, Mohammad Reza Naqdi, says Tehran must not lose focus of its main enemy, namely the U.S., warning that Washington seeks to downgrade the stature of the Islamic Republic’s struggles to Riyadh’s levels.

He also said Iran had showed restraint after events such as last year’s Haj, where 464 Iranians were among more than 2,000 pilgrims killed in a stampede, and had not cut or reduced its diplomatic relations with the kingdom.

“From an Iranian point of view, storming Saudi embassy was illegal and condemned, which President Rouhani established a committee to immediately address the issue and to punish the perpetrators; we equally condemn the hidden hands of the Saudi government in organizing the attack”, Rahmani Fazli told reporters.