OIC condemns attacks on Saudi mission in Iran

Analysts said the comments from the Iranian supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, could be ties to a meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation in Jiddah, Saudi Arabia, on Tuesday, where the attack is high on the agenda.

The 57-member OIC said it “rejects and condemns Iran s inflammatory statements” over the executions, “considering those statements a blatant interference in the internal affairs” of Saudi Arabia.

Protesters stormed the Saudi embassy in Tehran on January 2 after Saudi Arabia executed a Shi’ite Muslim cleric.

The meeting also noted that these aggressions contravene the OIC Charter and the Charter of the United Nations, which call for promoting trust and fostering friendly relations, mutual respect and cooperation among member states, resolving conflicts through peaceful means, and abstaining from interfering in the internal affairs of states.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says the Islamic Republic does not seek any tensions with Saudi Arabia, and that the two Muslim countries can coexist peacefully.

“This situation turns us from effectively addressing the true challenges that threaten the future of our member states and their peoples”, he said, before going on to name recent attacks by suspected Islamist militants in Afghanistan, Turkey, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Libya and Mali. He added that this attack, as well as one on the British Embassy in 2011, were both “to the detriment of the country and Islam and I disliked both”.

He was put to death at the beginning of January along with 46 Shiite activists and Sunnis who Saudi Arabia said were involved in al-Qaeda killings.

“But Iran, rather than confronting the isolation it has created for itself, opts to obscure its unsafe sectarian and expansionist policies, as well as its support for terrorism, by leveling unsubstantiated charges against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia”, he added.

Informed sources revealed for Asharq Al-Awsat that Iran faces huge isolation in the meeting of the foreign ministers.

Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir has said in several interviews this month that full relations can not be restored until Iran changes its behavior and acts like a normal state rather than like “a revolution”.

“This attack was part of ongoing attacks on the diplomatic missions in Iran for 35 years”.

“Iran recruits militias in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen”, the official said.

The Chinese president will head to Egypt Wednesday afternoon to continue his three-nation tour of the Middle East, which will also take him to Iran.

As a second-string partner with America, Saudi Arabia should take heed of the United States’ interests and not throw unbridled sabotaging techniques into our proactive negotiations with Iran for the sake of extremist ideologies and last attempts at a last ditch effort for prime-time world stage presence.