Gulf monarchies back Saudi in row with Iran

Iran says it will submit an official report to the United Nations claiming its embassy in Sanaa has been damaged during Saudi-led air strikes.

Around 1,000 protestors marched through Tehran chanting “death to Al-Saud” – Riyadh’s ruling family, according to an AFP photographer. It wasn’t a funeral, as the sheikh’s brother has said Saudi authorities had already buried his body in an undisclosed cemetery.

Anti-Saudi demonstrators took to the streets of Teheran on Friday (Jan 8) to protest Riyadh’s execution of a prominent Shi’ite cleric and after Iran accused its rival of bombing its embassy in Yemen. Those attacks came after Saudi Arabia executed al-Nimr on January 2.

Arab foreign ministers are to hold their emergency meeting today to discuss the repercussions of the Iranian positions, and Arab countries are expected to agree on actions that should be taken to protect the region from Iran’s aggressive practices, its interference in Arab affairs, and its support for terrorism in Syria, Yemen, Bahrain and other areas within the Arab region and beyond. “Iran has to make a decision whether it is a nation state or a revolution”.

The foreign minister reaffirmed the Kingdom’s commitment to a peaceful resolution in Yemen based on the GCC initiatives and the outcomes of the Yemeni national dialogue and based on UN Security Council resolution 2216.

In a letter to the U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon published by Iranian news agencies earlier on Saturday, Iran’s foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif complained about Saudi Arabia’s “provocations” towards Tehran. “The meeting will be devoted to studying the challenges related to the attacks on the Embassy of the Saudi Kingdom in Tehran and its consulate in Mashhad”, Sputnik Georgia cites the statement of the GCC secretariat.

A protest by hundreds of Bahrain’s majority Shiites marching to denounce Saudi Arabia for its execution last week of a leading Shiite cleric has descended into violence.

“Iran has called for Islamic unity in the face of Saudi sectarian hate-mongering”, Zarif wrote. Teheran is providing military assistance to close ally President Bashar al-Assad against rebel groups, some backed by Saudi Arabia.