Iran warns Saudi Arabia to stop ‘adding fuel to fire’

Jordan summoned Iran’s ambassador in Amman on Wednesday to condemn the attack by protesters on the Saudi embassy in Tehran and “Iranian interference in the internal affairs of Arab states”, the state news agency Petra said.

Saudi Arabia cut diplomatic ties with Iran on Sunday in response to the storming of its embassy in Tehran. Iranian protesters, angered by the execution, later attacked the Saudi Embassy in Tehran and a consulate in Mashhad.

When the Sunni monarchy in Saudi Arabia executed a Shiite cleric along with 46 other prisoners over the weekend, it sparked the outrage of Iran, a majority Shiite theocracy. The United Arab Emirates announced shortly after Bahrain that it would downgrade diplomatic relations with Tehran and focus primarily on business ties.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani struck back on Tuesday, saying Saudi Arabia could not hide its “crime” of executing al-Nimr.

Staffan de Mistura says in a statement released Tuesday that there is “a clear determination on the Saudi side” that the regional tensions will not affect the political process that is expected to begin January 25 in Geneva. He was arrested in 2012 after calling for two Saudi governorates to be separated from the kingdom.

Kuwait has maintained good relations with Tehran despite busting in August a cell allegedly spying for Iran.

Mr Zarif, meanwhile, blamed Saudi Arabia for exacerbating the situation.

Saudi Arabia “must stop” its prolonged attempts to frustrate Iran’s efforts to reduce tensions in the Middle East and beyond, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Wednesday. “But Saudi Arabia, which thrives on tensions, has used this incident as an excuse to fuel the tensions”, Hossein Jaberi Ansari, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman, said in televised remarks on Monday.

US Secretary of State John Kerry called his Iranian and Saudi counterparts on Monday to urge calm as European leaders raised concerns and Moscow offered to act as an intermediary.

Tehran’s latest reaction to al-Nimr’s execution came as Kuwait joined other Saudi allies in taking diplomatic action against Iran.

But the ambassador also said that the two nations are “not naturally born enemies”, and that what separated them was Iranian interference, in reference to Iran’s support for organizations in other countries, such as Hezbollah in Lebanon and the administration of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria.

“This is part of her ongoing consultations with regional stakeholders to discuss Lebanon’s stability and security as well as efforts to support Lebanon’s critical humanitarian and developmental needs”, explained Mr. Dujarric.