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| Hassan-Rouhani |
Saudi Arabia cut all ties with Iran on Sunday following the kingdom’s execution of prominent Shi’ite cleric Nimr al-Nimr. Protesters in Iran and Iraq marched for a third day to denounce the execution.
The Saudi envoy to the U.N Abdallah Al-Mouallimi when asked by reporters on Monday what it would take for ties to be restored, he said, “Very simple – Iran to cease and desist from interfering in the internal affairs of other countries, including our own.” He added, “If they do so, we will of course have normal relations with Iran. We are not natural-born enemies of Iran.”
Mouallimi said his country’s severing of ties with Iran would not affect its efforts to secure peace in Syria and Yemen. “We will attend the next Syria talks and we’re not going to boycott them because of Iran or anybody else for that matter.”
China has also reacted to the Saudi-Iran face when it declared itself “highly concerned” with the developments, in what is considered a rare foray into Middle East diplomacy.
The United States and Germany have called for restraint, in their rather well calculated reaction to the face-off.
Russia on her own has offered to mediate to end the dispute but a U.S. senior State Department official said Iran and Saudi Arabia must work out their differences themselves.
“It is not going to be helpful for us to own this process, certainly to be seen to be driving it,” the U.S. official said. “They have to work this out between themselves if a solution to this tension is going to be long-lasting and sustainable.”
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has told the Saudi foreign minister that Riyadh’s decision to break off diplomatic ties with Iran was extremely troubling.
The U.N. chief urged Saudi Arabia to renew a ceasefire it ended this weekend with the Iran-allied Shi’ite Houthi group in Yemen that it has been bombing for nine months.
Brent jumped 4 percent early on worries about the tensions. But the crude oil benchmark erased its gains and settled a few cents lower as fears rose about the global economy and the Middle East dispute looked unlikely to disrupt oil supplies immediately.
Source: THEGUARDIAN