Iran sacks senior security official over Saudi embassy attack

Delegate minister for foreign affairs and cooperation, Mbarka Bouaida, expressed on Sunday in Cairo, Morocco’s strong condemnation of attacks on Saudi Arabia’s embassy in Tehran and its consulate in Mashhad, and held the Iranian government responsible of violations of worldwide conventions relating to the protection of diplomatic missions.

Recently, thousands of Iranians demonstrated against Saudi Arabia for the January 2 execution of a top Shiite cleric.

“Most are trying to appease Saudi and maintain minimal relations with Iran to prevent further escalation”, said Lina Khatib, former director of the Carnegie Middle East Centre in Beirut.

Arab foreign ministers have condemned Iran’s interference in Saudi affairs, UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah Bin Zayed said on Saturday.

“Reiterating Pakistan’s position, the Spokesman underscored that, in keeping with Pakistan’s unflinching commitment to combating terrorism and support for all regional and worldwide efforts to eliminate the menace of terrorism, Pakistan welcomed the formation of the Coalition to counter terrorism”.

The chairman of the committee, Awais Leghari, told media personnel after the briefing that the committee praised Pakistan’s neutral stance on the Saud-Iran conflict.

Iran’s judiciary chief slammed Saudi Arabi on Monday for its hostile policies towards Tehran claiming that Saudi policies are serving the interests of the United States and Israel by harming the Muslim world, according to a report by Fars News.

“Pakistan has historically pursued the policy of promoting brotherhood among member states of the OIC”.

The deputy crown prince later called on Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

Turkey has closer ties to Saudi Arabia, with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan paying a visit to the country shortly before the latest outbreak of diplomatic hostilities.

Pakistan on Tuesday said it would not send troops to fight in any country as part of a 34-nation Saudi-led alliance against “terrorism”.

“Gulf countries are under vast pressure from Riyadh”.

Tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia have lately exacerbated after the latter executed a prominent Shia cleric on terror charges, causing widespread condemnation.

While Saudi ally Bahrain said it was severing diplomatic ties with Iran, others like UAE, Jordan, Djibouti, Turkey, Qatar and Sudan said they were downgrading diplomatic relations with Tehran.