BY SAM WILKIN
AND ANGUS MCDOWALL
Saudi Arabia cut ties with Iran on Sunday, responding to the storming of
its embassy in Tehran in an escalating row between the rival Middle East powers
over Riyadh's execution of a Shi'ite Muslim cleric.
Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir told a news conference in Riyadh that
the envoy of Shi'ite Iran had been asked to quit Saudi Arabia within 48 hours.
The kingdom, he said, would not allow the Islamic republic to undermine its
security.
Iranian protesters stormed the Saudi embassy in Tehran early on Sunday
and Shi'ite Iran's top leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, predicted "divine
vengeance" for the execution of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, an outspoken opponent
of the ruling Al Saudi family.
Jubeir said the attack in Tehran was in line with what he said were
earlier Iranian assaults on foreign embassies there and with Iranian policies
of destabilizing the region by creating "terrorist cells" in Saudi
Arabia.
"The kingdom, in light of these realities, announces the cutting of
diplomatic relations with Iran and requests the departure of delegates of
diplomatic missions of the embassy and consulate and offices related to it
within 48 hours. The ambassador has been summoned to notify them," he
said.
Speaking on Iranian state television, Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein
Amir-Abdollahian said in Tehran's first response that by cutting diplomatic
ties, Riyadh could not cover up "its major mistake of executing Sheikh
Nimr".
The United States, Saudi Arabia's biggest backer in the West, responded
by encouraging diplomatic engagement and calling for leaders in the region to
take "affirmative steps" to reduce tensions.
"We believe that diplomatic engagement and direct conversations
remain essential in working through differences and we will continue to urge
leaders across the region to take affirmative steps to calm tensions," an
official of President Barack Obama's administration said.
Tensions between revolutionary, mainly Shi'ite Iran and Saudi Arabia's
conservative Sunni monarchy have run high for years as they backed opposing
forces in wars and political conflicts across the Middle East, usually along
sectarian lines.
However, Saturday's execution of a cleric whose death Iran had warned
would "cost Saudi Arabia dearly", and the storming of the kingdom's
Tehran embassy, raised the pitch of the rivalry.
Strong rhetoric from Tehran was matched by Iran's Shi'ite allies across
the region, with Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, the head of Lebanese militia
Hezbollah, describing the execution as "a message of blood". Moqtada
al-Sadr, an Iraqi Shi'ite cleric, called for angry protests.
Demonstrators protesting against the execution of the cleric, Sheikh
Nimr al-Nimr, broke into the embassy building, smashed furniture and started
fires before being ejected by police.
Iran's President Hassan Rouhani condemned the execution as
"inhuman", but also urged the prosecution of "extremist
individuals" for attacking the embassy and the Saudi consulate in the
northeastern city of Mashhad, state media reported.
Tehran's police chief said an unspecified number of "unruly
elements" were arrested for attacking the embassy with petrol bombs and
rocks. A
prosecutor said 40 people were held.
"The unjustly spilled blood of this oppressed martyr will no doubt
soon show its effect and divine vengeance will befall Saudi politicians,"
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was quoted as saying by Iran's
state television.
PROTESTS
Nimr, the most vocal critic of the dynasty among the Shi'ite minority,
had come to be seen as a leader of the sect's younger activists, who had tired
of the failure of older, more measured, leaders to achieve equality with
Sunnis.
His execution, along with three other Shi'ites and 43 members of Al
Qaeda, sparked angry protests in the Qatif region in eastern Saudi Arabia,
where demonstrators denounced the ruling Al Saud dynasty, and in the nearby
Gulf kingdom of Bahrain.
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