Turkey ‘harshly’ condemns attacks on Saudi missions – 1/5/2016 7:27:38 PM

Russian Federation is ready to serve as an intermediary to resolve the dispute between Saudi Arabia and Iran that saw the kingdom break off diplomatic relations with Tehran, the Foreign Ministry said Monday.

Relations between Riyadh and Tehran were already strained over their support for opposite sides in conflicts in Syrian and Yemen, and were exacerbated over Saudi Arabia’s execution of a prominent Shiite cleric.

Iranian diplomats have left Saudi Arabia and returned to Tehran after the kingdom severed ties with the Islamic Republic.

Mr al-Nimr, a central figure in the Arab Spring-inspired protests by Saudi Arabia’s Shiite minority, was executed after being convicted of sedition and of other crimes, though he long denied advocating violence.

But analysts say he has resisted pressure from Iranian-backed Shi’ite militias, politicians and protesters to close the newly reopened Saudi embassy in Baghdad.

Some of its allies among Sunni Arab states followed suit, with Bahrain and Sudan breaking off ties and the United Arab Emirates downgrading relations.

Saudi Arabia severed diplomatic relations with Iran over the attacks on its diplomatic missions and Iran’s criticism of the execution, which Riyadh said amounted to meddling in its internal affairs.

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

“We hope that the European countries which have been sensitive to human rights issues could do their duties in this regard”, Rouhani said.

Of particular concern, US officials said, are military operations against Islamic State extremists in Iraq that are being conducted by Iraqi security forces, which answer to an Iran-friendly government, and Sunni and Shiite militias.

Iranian officials condemned the attacks and more than 40 people have been arrested in connection with them.

Britain’s Special Representative for Syria on Tuesday urged the government to lift sieges as a step towards ending the almost five-year-old conflict.

On Monday, the Saudi ambassador to the United Nations said that his country will attend the upcoming Syrian and Yemeni peace talks, despite the fallout with Iran. Iran’s potential to emerge as a stronger regional power, following its nuclear deal with world powers, has deepened Saudi Arabia’s determination to prevent the Iranians from expanding their capacity to set the regional agenda. Riyadh also defended the execution of 47 men, including Nimr, saying in a letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that they were “granted fair and just trials without any consideration to their intellectual, racial or sectarian affiliation”.