Bahrain follows Saudi in cutting ties with Iran

Bahrain has joined Saudi Arabia in cutting ties with Iran in the wake of the execution of a prominent Shiite cleric.

United Nations deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said de Mistura “hopes that the adverse consequences of the tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran do not affect the peace process with the Syrians”.

While the UAE did not completely sever diplomatic contact, it recalled ambassador Saif Al Zaabi and greatly reduced embassy staff in Tehran. A US official said Kerry had spoken on Sunday with the U.N special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, to gauge any impact Saudi-Iranian developments might have on the planned January 25 start of negotiations.

The cleric’s name was among a list of the 47 carried by the state-run Saudi Press Agency.

A man was killed and a child was moderately injured on Sunday evening when unidentified gunmen opened fire on a police patrol in Saudi Arabia’s eastern predominantly-Shia Qatif province.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) said it was downgrading its diplomatic representation in Tehran and will cut the number of Iranian diplomats in the country.

The statement was published on Monday afternoon.

“We can see that it was right to neither deliver tanks nor G36 assault rifles to Saudi Arabia“, Gabriel said in a statement issued by the economy ministry.

The move comes after Saudi Arabia and Bahrain both cut diplomatic ties to Iran.

Bahrain’s Sunni monarchy, which quashed mass protests by the Shiite majority in 2011 with the help of Saudi and Emirati forces, enjoys particularly close relations with Saudi Arabia, and shares Riyadh’s view that Shiite Iran is intent on destabilizing the region through its various proxies.

Dujarric said Ban told Jubeir that Saudi Arabia should “renew its commitment to a ceasefire” in Yemen. Most regional analysts say the solution to these devastating proxy wars can only be resolved when there is some accommodation between Riyadh and Tehran.

Forty people were arrested and investigators were pursuing other suspects, Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dowlatabadi said, according to the semi-official ISNA news agency.

Lawmaker Mohammad Ali Esfanani, spokesman of the Judicial and Legal Committee of the Iranian parliament, made the comments on Monday.

But, she added, these countries “also have certain interests with us that we are involved in”, creating the need for diplomatic delicacy.

Iran retorted that Riyadh had used the embassy incident and a similar attack on its consulate in the Iranian city of Mashhad as an “excuse” to stoke tensions.