Iran calls on Saudi Arabia to stop confounding its diplomacy

In response, Saudi Arabia and its allies Sudan and Bahrain cut diplomatic ties with Iran while the United Arab Emirates downgraded its relationship.

Tension between revolutionary, mainly Shi’ite Iran and Saudi Arabia’s conservative Sunni monarchy has run high for years as they backed opposing forces in conflicts across the Middle East. This prompted protestors in Shia-dominated Iran to storm the Saudi embassy in Teheran, an action that wasn’t apparently encouraged by the government. The execution led to protests by Shia in Baghdad, Al Awamiyah in Saudi Arabia, Srinagar and Lucknow in India, and Tehran.

Saudi Arabia cut off diplomatic relations with Iran on Sunday after the attacks.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani struck back on Tuesday, saying Saudi Arabia could not hide its “crime” of executing al-Nimr. “It’s something that we have talked to Saudi officials about before”.

It also is part of a more aggressive stance by the kingdom in the past year, which included launching an air campaign against Shiite rebels in Yemen and increased aid to rebels in Syria.

Speaking alongside Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, al-Jaafari said Iraq’s place in the heart of the Middle East allows it to play a role in trying to “alleviate tensions”. “We have always adopted a policy of interaction and dialogue”, Zarif said, reiterating that the Iranian government had condemned Saturday’s embassy attack as “not at all justified”. But he urged Iran not to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries.

Iran and Saudi Arabia, the world’s two greatest supporters of terrorism, calling each other on the carpet for committing atrocities would be laughable if they weren’t so deadly in their execution.

“A breakdown of relations between Riyadh and Tehran could have very serious consequences for the region”, Dujarric said.

The UN envoy for Syria, Staffan De Mistura, rushed to Riyadh in a bid to defuse tensions and met foreign diplomats there yesterday.

Brushing aside the Iranian apology, Saudi Arabia’s UN Ambassador Abdullah al-Mouallimi tied the normalization of his country’s relations with Iran to the latter’s future conduct. Since the Iranian revolution in 1979, Iran has taken up a strategy of destabilizing the region by targeting sectarian differences.

The tension between the two regions did not only affect the people but the oil prices as well.

The foreign minister of Shiite-majority Iraq was due in Tehran Wednesday, Iran state media reported, “in the framework of improving Iran-Iraq bilateral relations”.

“What we want to see is for Saudi Arabia to respect and protect human rights and to ensure a fair and transparent judicial process”, Kirby added.

He was accused of stirring violent protests against the Sunni-led Saudi regime in 2011-12.

Tiny Kuwait is home to both Shiites and Sunnis living in peace and has the most free-wheeling political system among all Gulf nations.