Saudi Arabia cancels all Iran flights

The killings have since sparked protests in Nimr’s home region as well as large-scale protests in Bahrain, Pakistan and Iran, where protesters invaded the Saudi embassy in Tehran on Saturday night.

Saudi Ambassador Abdallah Al-Moualimi told reporters on Monday that Iran’s “interference” in the internal affairs of Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries was to blame for the diplomatic rupture.

The top Saudi diplomat also said that commercial ties with Iran are also severed.

Bahrain and Sudan on Monday both made a decision to sever their diplomatic ties with Iran, while the United Arab Emirates is downgrading its diplomacy to only focus on business relationships.

The row that erupted between Riyadh and Tehran started following Saudi Arabia’s execution Saturday of prominent Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr Al Nimr.

However, Jubeir said Saudi Arabia had been right to execute Nimr, whom he accused of “agitating, organising cells, providing them with weapons and money”.

A historically fraught rivalry between Sunni Muslim-dominated Saudi Arabia and Shiite Muslim Iran, previously fought mostly through proxies, now is more direct than ever and threatens to engulf the region in a new spiral of bitter confrontations, analysts said.

BNA said in an Arabic statement that “after the cowardly acts inflicted on our brethren at the Saudi embassy in Tehran and the consulate in Mashhad – which represent a flagrant violation of intentional treaties and grave sectarian policies – we can not be silent about nor accept it [an Iranian diplomatic presence]”.

In October, Bahrain ordered the acting Iranian charge d’affaires to leave within 72 hours and recalled its own ambassador after alleging Iran sponsored “subversion” and “terrorism” and funneled arms to militants.

Others torched the flags of Israel, Iran’s arch-foe, and of the United States which is one of Saudi Arabia’s key Western allies. The Saudi army intervened in Bahrain in March 2011, and since then the Saudi forces have shielded the Sunnis from the Shiites supported by Iran.

Iran’s Foreign Minstry said on Monday that Saudis were “increasing clashes and tension” in the Middle East region.

The statement was Iran’s first official reaction to a Sunday announcement by Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir that Riyadh had cut diplomatic relations with Tehran and that all Iranian diplomats had 48 hours to depart the kingdom.

Some 3,000 demonstrators gathered in eastern Tehran’s Imam Hossein Square, chanting slogans against Saudi Arabia’s Al-Saud royal family.

The administration is urging both sides to “de-escalate” their conflict and “not further inflame” tensions, Earnest said.