Saudi Arabia has announced it is severing diplomatic ties
with Iran amid mounting tensions over the execution of a prominent Saudi Shiite
cleric.
Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said that Iranian
diplomatic personnel had 48 hours to leave the country and all Saudi diplomatic
personnel in Iran were being recalled home.
Iranian officials harshly condemned the execution, with
Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei saying that Saudi Arabia would face
‘divine retribution’.
Protesters set fire to the kingdom’s embassy in Tehran and demonstrators took to the streets from Bahrain to Pakistan after the mass execution of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr and 46 others.
It was the largest execution carried out by Saudi Arabia
in three and a half decades and illustrates the kingdom’s new aggressiveness
under King Salman.
Under his reign, Saudi Arabia has led a coalition
fighting Shiite rebels in Yemen and staunchly opposed regional Shiite power
Iran, even as Tehran struck a nuclear deal with world powers.
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