Turkey summons Iran envoy over media reports linking Saudi executions with Erdoğan

“The intentional act of the Saudi government was a violation of all worldwide conventions and regulations about protecting the security and safety of diplomatic missions in all situations”, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hossein Jaber-Ansari said Thursday, according to IRNA.

Speaking to the Reuters news agency, a spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen said it was investigating Iran’s claim.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry on Thursday said Saudi Arabia was to blame for the air strikes the coalition it leads dealt on the Iranian embassy in Sana since the end of March 2014. He also said the coalition had requested all countries to supply it with coordinates of the location of their diplomatic missions.

However, an Associated Press reporter who reached the site just after the announcement saw no visible damage at the building. A spokesperson for the Saudi-led Sunni coalition conducting a military intervention in Yemen against anti-government Shia rebels known as the Houthis said there would be an investigation.

Saudi Arabia on January 3 gave Iran’s ambassador to Riyadh 48 hours to leave the country after protesters in the Shiite-majority country stormed the Saudi Embassy and set parts of it on fire.

Although the statement released after lengthy cabinet meeting did not mention any links between its latest decision and its the diplomatic row between the Saudi and Iran over the execution of the Shiite cleric, Nimr Al Nimr. The country is also freezing all Saudi imports.

Since Saudi Arabia severed ties to Iran, a host of its allies, including the United Arab Emirates, have cut or reduced their ties as well.

But it and the few other Saudi companies doing business in Iran faced increasing public pressure over the course of the week, as consumer and business groups called for boycotts of Iranian products.

The Saudi forces in Yemen are backed by Turkey, Egypt, Qatar and the UAE, who fear Iran’s increasing influence in the region.

Longstanding frictions between the Middle East’s foremost Sunni and Shiite Muslim powers exploded into a full-blown diplomatic crisis at the weekend when Riyadh executed Shiite cleric and activist Nimr al-Nimr.

Meanwhile, a number of countries – including the U.S., the U.K., China and Turkey – urged both Saudi Arabia and Iran to show restraint amid the ongoing row.