[Relations between Sunni-ruled Saudi
Arabia and Shia-dominated Iran have
been strained for decades, with Riyadh
frequently accusing Tehran of
interfering in Arab affairs. The oil-rich foes have also been divided over the
nearly five-year war in Syria, where
Iran is
backing the regime, and the conflict in Yemen where
a Saudi-led coalition is battling Shia rebels.]
AFP | Jan 4, 2016
DUBAI/RIYADH: Bahrain said
on Monday it is cutting diplomatic ties with Iran, following
the suit of its ally Saudi
Arabia as tensions escalate over the
execution of Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr.
Manama
ordered Tehran's
diplomats in the tiny Gulf state "to leave the kingdom within 48 hours,"
BNA state news agency said on Twitter.
A Bahraini statement said the decision
was triggered by "cowardly" attacks on Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran and "increasing
flagrant and dangerous meddling" by Tehran in
the internal affairs of Gulf and Arab states. Manama said
the attacks on the Saudi missions represent a "very dangerous pattern of
sectarian policies that should be confronted ... in order to preserve security
and stability in the entire region."
The Bahraini foreign ministry summoned
Iran's
charge d'affaires Murtada Sanawbari and handed him an official note in this
regard, said the statement carried by BNA.
Earlier on Sunday, Saudi
Arabia broke off diplomatic ties with Iran after
protesters ransacked its embassy in Tehran to
protest at the execution of al-Nimr cleric whose killing has sparked fury.
Saudi foreign minister Adel al-Jubeir
made the announcement in Riyadh, saying
Iranian diplomats had 48 hours to leave the kingdom, but Tehran fired
back that Saudi Arabia's
decision would not distract from its "big mistake" of executing Nimr
al-Nimr.
READ ALSO:Iranian cleric says Nimr al-Nimr
execution will bring down Saudi government
Relations between Sunni-ruled Saudi
Arabia and Shia-dominated Iran have
been strained for decades, with Riyadh
frequently accusing Tehran of
interfering in Arab affairs. The oil-rich foes have also been divided over the
nearly five-year war in Syria, where
Iran is
backing the regime, and the conflict in Yemen where
a Saudi-led coalition is battling Shia rebels.
The spike in tensions, which comes
after Iran last
year secured a historic nuclear deal with world powers led by the United
States, saw oil prices rise Monday in
Asian trading.
On Sunday, Iran's
supreme leader said Riyadh would
face "quick consequences" for executing Nimr, as Washington urged
regional leaders to soothe escalating sectarian tensions between Sunni and Shia
Muslims.
Saudi
Arabia "is breaking off
diplomatic ties with Iran and
requests that all members of the Iranian diplomatic mission leave ... within 48
hours," Jubeir said. "Iran's
history is full of negative interference and hostility in Arab issues, and it
is always accompanied by destruction," he said, accusing Tehran of
seeking to "destabilise" the region.
On Saturday, a mob attacked the Saudi
embassy in Tehran and a
consulate in Mashhad, Iran's
second-biggest city, amid protests at al-Nimr's execution.
Jubeir said Saudi authorities had
asked their Iranian counterparts to ensure security at the embassy but they did
not cooperate and failed to protect it.
READ ALSO:Indian Shias outraged at the
execution of Saudi cleric Sheikh Nimr, call for nationwide protest
Nimr, 56, was a force behind 2011 anti-government
protests in oil-rich eastern Saudi
Arabia, where Shias have long
complained of marginalization. He was put to death along with 46 other people, including
Shia activists and convicted Sunni militants who the Saudi interior ministry
says were involved in al-Qaida attacks that killed dozens in 2003 and 2004.
Some were beheaded and others were
executed by firing squad.
Iran has
said it arrested 44 people over the embassy attacks, and President Hassan
Rouhani said the demonstrators were "radicals" and the assaults "totally
unjustifiable".
Iran's
supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, meanwhile, condemned al-Nimr's execution,
saying "God will not forgive" Saudi
Arabia for putting him to death.
"The unjustly spilt blood of this martyr will have quick consequences,"
he said, adding: "It will haunt the politicians of this regime."
Deputy foreign minister Hossein Amir
Abdollahian later said, according to IRNA: "By deciding to sever (diplomatic)
relations, Saudi Arabia
cannot make (the world) forget its big mistake of executing a cleric."
Khamenei was joined in his
condemnation of al-Nimr's execution by Iraq's top
Shia authority, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who called the death sentence "an
unjust act of aggression".
Their comments, echoed by other
regional religious and political leaders, came as protests in Iran on
Sunday spread to Bahrain, Pakistan, India's Kashmir and Lebanon.
Saudi
Arabia branded Nimr an "instigator
of sedition" and arrested him in 2012, after a video on YouTube showed him
making a speech celebrating the death of the-then interior minister.
Three years earlier he called for the
oil-rich Eastern Province's
Shia-populated Qatif and Al-Ihsaa governorates to be separated from Saudi
Arabia and united with Bahrain.
In Eastern Province on
Sunday, state media said Saudi police were shot at in a "terrorist action"
in Nimr's home village. A civilian was killed and a child wounded, but there
were no details on whether there were any police casualties.
Demonstrations outside the Saudi
embassy and at Palestine Square in Tehran
attracted around 1,500 people Sunday, with chants of "Death to the House
of Saud".
On Baghdad's Palestine
Street, Iraqi cleric Ahmed al-Shahmani said:
"The House of Saud has opened the gates of hell on its own regime."
In Bahrain, where
authorities defended Saudi
Arabia along with other Gulf allies of
Riyadh, police
used buckshot and tear gas against Shiiite protesters who threw petrol bombs. Arrests
were reported.
Nimr's execution was widely condemned
elsewhere by major Western powers, and the United
States on Sunday called on Middle
East countries to take "affirmative steps" to calm
tensions.
Executions have soared in Saudi
Arabia since King Salman ascended the
throne a year ago with 153 people put to death in 2015, nearly twice as many as
in 2014, for crimes ranging from murder to drug trafficking, armed robbery, rape
and apostasy.
Human Rights Watch said the mass
execution was the largest since 1980, and called it a "shameful start to 2016",
while Amnesty International said Riyadh was
using al-Nimr's execution "to settle political scores".
