Zarif: Saudi Arabia Must Choose Sectarian Hatred or Regional Stability

Arab foreign ministers, with the exception of Lebanon, condemned in a Sunday statement what they called Iran’s meddling in Arab affairs.

Sunni-majority Saudi Arabia then cut diplomatic ties with Iran, leading some Gulf allies to either follow suit or downgrade their relations with the Islamic Republic.

Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf’s Shah Mehmood Qureshi said being an important country of the Muslim world, Pakistan could play a pivotal role to end the tension between Iran and Saudi Arabia.

The two leaders agreed to further strengthen the bilateral relations between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia and deepen the cooperation in all fields, including defence, security, fight against terrorism, trade and investment and manpower requirements of the Kingdom, said a press release. The other components of the Saudi’s “plan”, according to Zarif, include pressuring the West and “promoting regional instability through waging war in Yemen”.

In a statement dated January 10, al Qaeda’s Yemeni branch and its North African wing said Riyadh had gone ahead with the executions despite a warning not to do so.

The diplomatic dispute has raised concern that efforts to resolve a range of conflicts, including those in Yemen and Syria – where Saudi Arabia and Iran support opposing sides – could be derailed.

“The Iranian people don’t like this challenge”, Masoud Lavasani, a journalist who fled Iran and is now based in Turkey, told Al Jazeera, referring to Nimr’s execution.

Iran took steps on Monday to try to limit the diplomatic damage from an attack on Saudi Arabia’s embassy in Tehran by an angry mob, laying blame on a top security official and saying some of those who carried out the attack were being interrogated. UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura said that both Saudi Arabia and Iran have assured him that their row would not affect their engagement in the Syrian peace talks.

Geranmayeh said, the incident “exposed to a global audience” the existence of “factions from the hardline camp that support these orchestrated mob attacks” in the country.

He added that Jafari assured his Saudi counterpart Adel bin Ahmed Al-Jubeir that the attacks on Saudi foreign missions would never happen in Iraq.