{"id":22294,"date":"2016-01-03T23:47:06","date_gmt":"2016-01-03T23:47:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/saudi-arabia-cuts-diplomatic-ties-with-iran\/"},"modified":"2016-01-03T23:46:54","modified_gmt":"2016-01-03T23:46:54","slug":"saudi-arabia-cuts-diplomatic-ties-with-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/saudi-arabia-cuts-diplomatic-ties-with-iran\/","title":{"rendered":"Saudi Arabia cuts diplomatic ties with Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"

{Iranian diplomatic mission asked to leave the kingdom within 48 hours as Saudis evacuate embassy staff from Tehran.}<\/p>\n

Saudi Arabia has announced it is severing diplomatic ties with Iran following Saturday’s attack on its embassy in Tehran during protests against executions in the kingdom.<\/p>\n

Adel al-Jubeir, the Saudi foreign minister, made the announcement on Sunday while the foreign ministry said it was asking Iranian diplomatic mission to leave the kingdom within 48 hours.<\/p>\n

The Saudi foreign ministry also announced that the staff of its diplomatic mission had been evacuated and were on their way back to the kingdom.<\/p>\n

Later reports said the flight carrying the Saudi embassy staff had landed in Dubai in the UAE.<\/p>\n

Saudi Arabia’s interior ministry announced on Saturday the execution of 47 people on terrorism charges, including a convicted al-Qaeda leader and a Shia religious leader.<\/p>\n

Many of the men executed had been linked to attacks in Saudi Arabia between 2003 and 2006, blamed on al-Qaeda.<\/p>\n

Four of those executed were said to be Shia.<\/p>\n

Nimr al-Nimr, the Shia leader, was accused of inciting violence and leading anti-government protests in the country’s east in 2011. He was convicted of sedition, disobedience and bearing arms.<\/p>\n

He did not deny the political charges against him, but said he never carried weapons or called for violence.<\/p>\n

Nimr spent more than a decade studying theology in predominantly Shia Iran.<\/p>\n

His execution prompted demonstrations in a number of countries, with protesters breaking into the Saudi embassy in Tehran late on Saturday night and starting fires.<\/p>\n

At Sunday’s press conference in Riyadh, Jubeir said the Saudi diplomatic representative had sought help from the Iranian foreign ministry when the building was stormed, but the requests were ignored three times.<\/p>\n

He accused the Iranian authorities of being complicit in the attack, saying that documents and computers were taken from the embassy building.<\/p>\n

Calling the incident an act of “aggression”, he said Iran had a history of “violating diplomatic missions”, citing the attacks on the US embassy in Tehran in 1979 and the British embassy in 2011.<\/p>\n

“These ongoing aggressions against diplomatic missions are a violation of all agreements and international conventions,” he said, calling them part of an effort by Iran to “destabilise” the region.<\/p>\n

Speaking to Al Jazeera from Beirut, Lebanon, Joseph Kechichian, a Middle East analyst, said the Saudi decision was “quite a surprise”.<\/p>\n

“This is an escalation that will create havoc in the region,” he said, referring to the latest developments.<\/p>\n

Iranian action<\/p>\n

Earlier on Sunday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani ordered the arrest and prosecution of individuals involved in the embassy attack, while also condemning the execution of Nimr.<\/p>\n

Asked at the press conference what other steps the Saudis would take against Iran, Jubeir said “we will cross each bridge when we will get to it”.<\/p>\n

“We are determined not to allow Iran to undermine our security,” he said.<\/p>\n

Ellie Geranmayeh, an Iran expert at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said the Saudi decision was likely to have repercussions for the region, particularly concerning the Syrian negotiations.<\/p>\n

“Western powers must increase efforts to safeguard this process and encourage the Saudis and Iran to continue their participation [in the Syria peace talks],” she told Al Jazeera from London.<\/p>\n

“These events further set back the urgently needed rapprochement between Tehran and Riyadh, and spell further trouble for an already fragile region.”<\/p>\n

\"The<\/figure>\n

Source:Al Jazeera:[Saudi Arabia cuts diplomatic ties with Iran->http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2016\/01\/saudi-arabia-severs-diplomatic-relations-iran-160103202137679.html]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{Iranian diplomatic mission asked to leave the kingdom within 48 hours as Saudis evacuate embassy staff from Tehran.} Saudi Arabia has announced it is severing diplomatic ties with Iran following Saturday’s attack on its embassy in Tehran during protests against executions in the kingdom. Adel al-Jubeir, the Saudi foreign minister, made the announcement on Sunday […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2000071275,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[101],"byline":[2474],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-22294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics-48","tag-internationl","byline-al-jazeera"],"bylines":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":{"id":2000071275,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton22294.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton22294.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton22294.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton22294.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton22294.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton22294.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22294\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000071275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22294"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=22294"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=22294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}