Elevated Saudi-Iran tensions bad news for anti-terrorism in Middle East

“Obviously there are some among [hard-liners] who disagree, but I think sometimes we give Iran a little too much credit for thinking ahead and really planning what it’s going to do”. Bahrain, Sudan, and the UAE have also downgraded ties with Iran.

Yesterday, Bahrain and Sudan cut all ties with Iran, following Riyadh’s example. According to the Saudi’s, they have to stand up to Iran because they say that Washington is not. Saudi Arabia’s mission to the United Nations yesterday defended the execution of 47 men including a prominent Shiite cleric that outraged Iran, saying all of the accused had been granted fair trials.

Concerned that inflamed tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia may threaten key foreign policy objectives in Iraq and Syria, among other places, the Obama administration toed a careful line Monday in seeking to calm a diplomatic storm that many fear could lead the longtime regional rivals to direct sectarian conflict. Asia markets plunged on a mix of worries over the Middle East impasse and weak Chinese manufacturing data.

Saudi Arabia’s severing of diplomatic ties with Iran will not affect its efforts to secure peace in Syria and Yemen, and ties with Iran would be restored when it stops interfering in the internal affairs of other countries, said the kingdom’s ambassador to the United Nations.

Al-Nimr’s death was a dramatic step because Saudi Arabia has rarely resorted to the death penalty in dealing with unrest among its Shiite minority, which has long complained of discrimination in the Sunni-led kingdom.

An image grab taken from Saudi Arabia’s Al-Ekhbaryia TV channel on Monday shows what the news channel said were members of the Saudi diplomatic mission in Tehran being greeted by Saudi officials upon their arrival at Dubai airport, a few hours after Saudi Arabia made a decision to sever its diplomatic relations with Iran. What are the economic and security consequences for both countries and the region as a whole?

They also share the five pillars of Islam: renouncing all other gods, praying five times daily, giving to the poor, fasting from sunrise to sunset during Ramadan, and making a pilgrimage to Mecca at least once if physically and financially able.

After cutting ties with Tehran on Sunday, Saudi announced yesterday it was barring all travel by its citizens to Iran, suspending air travel and ending commercial relations.

Shi’ite Muslims burn an effigy of Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz during a protest against the execution in Saudi Arabia of cleric Nimr al-Nimr, in front of Saudi Arabia’s embassy in New Delhi, India, Jan. 4, 2016.

He underscored the need to take a firm stance against Tehran, “which continues with its barbaric attacks and intervention in our affairs, ignoring the most basic items of global conventions on good neighborliness”.

Meanwhile, al-Nimr’s family is holding three days of mourning at a mosque in al-Awamiya village in the kingdom’s al-Qatif region in predominantly Shiite eastern Saudi Arabia.

Kirby said that he had not seen the reports. Amnesty International had warned of the impending execution in November. The mass-execution one of the largest in Saudi Arabia in decades.

The row between Riyadh and Tehran comes at a hard moment for efforts to find a political solution for the wars raging in the region – conflicts in which Iran and Saudi Arabia are backing opposing sides. Iran executed far more people than Saudi Arabia, he said. And Saudi Arabia, along with Israel’s government and conservatives in the USA, have been the leading opponents of the deal.

Ultraconservative support is particularly important at a time when Saudi Arabia is facing the rise of an insurgency by Sunni extremists linked to the Islamic State group.