Iran plan rallies to protest against Shia cleric execution

Iranian riot police block a street leading to the Saudi embassy as protesters march with portraits of Shia cleric on Sunday.

Witnesses said residents were ferrying victims to Misrata hospitals in ambulances and cars, many with shrapnel wounds.

One Iraqi official pointed out that during eight years of war between 1980 and 1988, relations between Iraq and Iran were never severed and their embassies never closed down.

Because a war between Saudi Arabia and Iran is the beginning of a major catastrophe in the region…. 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.

Zarif also accused Saudi authorities of engaging in “numerous direct and at times lethal provocations against Iran”.

Jubeir also said his country had asked the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, of which Iran is a member, to convene an extraordinary meeting to discuss the aggression against its embassy.

The Saudi-led coalition and Yemen’s foreign ministry denied Iran’s accusation that Saudi warplanes had hit its embassy in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa. Gen. Ahmed Asseri told Reuters.

The SPA report concluded, “The GCC Ministerial Council urged the global community to take necessary measures to compel Iran to respect the principle of good neighborliness, to stop its activities destabilizing the region, to stop its support for terrorism, to not interfere in the internal affairs of the GCC countries and the region’s countries, and to not use or threaten to use force”.

“Our patience with the Saudis has not yet worn out”, said the analyst, Hamid Reza Taraghi, who is close to hard-line Iranian leaders.

On January 2, Saudi Arabia executed 47 alleged terrorists, including a prominent Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr.

As the regional face-off between Iran and Saudi Arabia escalates, several Saudi allies have also increasingly distanced themselves from Tehran.

The ministry says it has recalled its acting ambassador to Iran and ordered Iranian diplomats to leave Somalia within 72 hours.

Saudi jets have “deliberately” bombed the Iranian embassy in Yemen in an air raid that wounded staff, Tehran has claimed today.

The execution of Nimr on Saturday sparked outrage across the Shiite world and beyond.