Iran seeks consistent ties with neighbors, Saudi Arabia: spokesman

Tensions in the Gulf have reached levels unseen since the 1980s, when Iraq received Gulf Arab funding for its 1980-88 war against Iran in a pan-Arab effort to stem the influence of the Islamic revolution that had toppled the Shah.

The Saudi prince, whose visit came close on the heels of one by Foreign Minister Adel Jubeir, was reportedly here to find out how Pakistan could militarily assist his country.

Saudi Arabia’s embassy in Tehran and its mission in Mashhad, Iran’s second city, were attacked by mobs and set on fire after the killing.

Saudi Arabia’s partners in the GCC- Bahrain, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Oman – expressed support for Riyadh in its diplomatic row with Iran, condemning what they described as Iranian interference in Riyadh’s internal affairs.

Jaber Ansari said cutting ties with Iran and putting pressure on other countries in doing so will not benefit Riyadh, calling its policies on the region “destructive”.

Nimr was a force behind 2011 anti-government protests in eastern Saudi Arabia, where Shiites have long complained of marginalisation.

A general view shows Arab foreign ministers during an emergency meeting of Arab foreign ministers in the Egyptian capital Cairo on January 10, 2016. “We will not allow Saudi actions to have a negative impact”, he said.

“This has fallen on deaf ears in Saudi Arabia”, he wrote.

The past year has brought an increase in tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia, two regional powers that stand on opposite sides of the conflicts in Yemen and Syria.

Among them were four Shia Muslims, including prominent cleric Nimr al-Nimr, whose death triggered a diplomatic crisis between Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shia-dominated Iran.

However, they were not prepared for such a game with Iran, he said, adding that Saudi Arabia should not be permitted to impose the costs of its destructive policies on the region.

President Hassan Rohani has called on Iran’s judiciary to urgently prosecute those who attacked the Saudi Embassy “to put an end once and for all to such damage and insults to Iran’s dignity and national security”.

Iran has sacked a senior security official over his failure to stop the ransacking of Saudi Arabia’s embassy, which led the Sunni-ruled kingdom to sever diplomatic relations. “Among the Arab states, political attitudes over how to deal with Iranian interventions in the Arab world are different and varied”, he said.