Saudi Arabia warns against “nefarious activities” by Iran regime

It followed an extraordinary meeting requested by Saudi Arabia after protesters in Iran in early January set fire to the embassy in Tehran and a consulate in the second city of Mashhad.

The statement affirmed that such attacks are incompatible with the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation Charter and the United Nations Charter, which call for strengthening confidence and encouraging friendly relations, mutual respect and cooperation between Member States, as well as peaceful settlement of disputes and maintenance of global peace and security and to refrain from interfering in the internal affairs of countries. Nimr was one of four Shiites put to death on January 2 alongside 43 Sunnis.

OIC Secretary General Iyad Madani, a Saudi, said the continued strains in relations between some member countries was contributing to “deepening the fractures in the Islamic political entity”.

“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.

The Saudi missions came under attacks after the KSA executed a Shia cleric as he was convicted of terrorism offences. China, France and Pakistan have also sought a de-escalation.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Wednesday condemned the mob attack on the Saudi Embassy in Tehran as an action that damaged the country and thanked the Revolutionary Guards for briefly detaining U.S. sailors last week.

Warning against widening sectarian tensions, he said the attacks against Saudi Arabia’s diplomatic missions had “breached diplomatic norms”.

In his remarks at the OIC meeting Thursday, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir accused the kingdom’s Shiite rival of inciting sectarianism in the region. “It is important to point out that the aggression against the kingdom’s missions comes as part of Iran’s aggressive policies and its continuous interference in the internal issues of the countries in the region”.

The official added the United States had no plans to engage on the issue of facilitating a Saudi-Iranian rapprochement, and that Washington – which has no diplomatic ties with Tehran – was not well placed to do so.