Kuwait has become the latest country to downgrade its relations with Iran after recalling its ambassador, in a widening regional crisis over the execution of a Saudi Shia cleric and the ensuing attack on the kingdom’s embassy in Tehran.
Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Sudan have already severed diplomatic ties with Iran, while the United Arab Emirates has recalled its envoy.
Late on Monday, Saudi Arabia’s envoy to the United Nations said the row withIran would not affect peace talks aimed at resolving the ongoing civil war in Syria, which has claimed over a quarter of a million lives in almost five years of conflict.
“We will attend the next Syria talks and we’re not going to boycott them because of Iran or anybody else for that matter,” said Abdullah al-Moallimi. “If we decide to boycott them it will have to be for a better reason than that.”
The two regional rivals are embroiled in a diplomatic spat sparked by Riyadh’s execution of Nimr al-Nimr, a Saudi cleric who encouraged demonstrations against the monarchy in the country’s Shia eastern province in the wake of the Arab spring uprisings. The killing inspired protests in Shia-majority areas in the Middle East and south Asia as well, and attacks on Sunni mosques in Iraq.
Iranian protesters attacked the kingdom’s embassy in Tehran, and Saudi Arabiaretaliated by severing diplomatic relations, ordering Iranian diplomats to leave the country and ending commercial ties with the Islamic republic, as well as halting flights between the two countries.
The UN security council on Monday night strongly condemned the attack on the embassy, and urged the Iranian government “to protect diplomatic and consular property and personnel”, while calling on both sides to reduce tensions.
Iran’s president, Hassan Rouhani, criticised the Saudi move on Tuesday. “Saudi Arabia cannot hide its crime of beheading a religious leader by severing political relations with Iran,” Rouhani was quoted as saying by state news agency Irna in a meeting with the Danish foreign minister in Tehran.
Saudi Arabia and Iran are locked in a regional struggle that has seen them back opposing sides in civil wars in Syria and Yemen. Peace talks between the Saudi-backed government in Yemen and Houthi rebels who overthrew it failed to even secure a brief ceasefire last month, and observers say the latest crisis may threaten scheduled peace talks in Geneva between the Syrian government and the opposition.
Iran strongly backs the government of Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, while Saudi Arabia has called for his removal from power and backed rebel groups battling to overthrow him.
“We’ve got a very difficult situation that we’re trying to navigate in terms of reaching a political resolution for the situation inside of Syria,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said in a press briefing on Monday. “It’s very difficult to get everybody around the table, and certainly it’s going to be even more difficult to get everybody back around the table if you have the Saudis and the Iranians trading public barbs and public expressions of antagonism.”
Iran has not yet made any public comment on whether it still intends to participate in the scheduled peace talks later in January. The latest spat is the latest in a long line of grievances and public admonishments between the two regional powers, who have traded accusations of destabilising other nations in the Middle East and supporting terrorism.
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Source: The Guardian