Saudi Arabia said on Monday it would restore ties with Iran when Tehran
stopped meddling in the affairs of other countries and pledged that
Riyadh would continue to work ‘very hard’ to support bids for peace in
Syria and Yemen despite the spat.
When asked what it would take for ties to be restored, Saudi UN
Ambassador Abdallah Al Mouallimi told reporters: "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."
On Monday, Bahrain and Sudan cut all ties with Iran, following Riyadh's
example. Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al Jubeir told Reuters Riyadh would
also halt air traffic and commercial relations between the rival
powers.
Jubeir blamed Iran's aggressive policies for the diplomatic action,
alluding to years of tension that spilled over on Saturday night when
Iranian protesters stormed the kingdom's embassy in Tehran.
"The downgrading of ties is not fundamentally a question of responding
to executions and the storming of an embassy... (but rather) a function
of a much deeper conflict between the two states," said Julien
Barnes-Dacey, senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign
Relations.
Crude importer China declared itself ‘highly concerned’ with the
developments, in a rare foray into Middle East diplomacy. The United
States and Germany called for restraint.
Russia offered to mediate an end to the dispute but a US 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 US official said. "They have to work this
out between themselves if a solution to this tension is going to be
long-lasting and sustainable."
"It was very difficult to get everybody around the table," White House
spokesman Josh Earnest said. "It certainly is going to be even more
difficult to get everybody back around the table if you have the Saudis
and the Iranians trading public barbs and public expressions of
antagonism."
Saudi Arabia has been instrumental in bringing together Syria's
political and armed opposition groups that would participate in peace
talks with Assad's government.
Saudi UN Ambassador 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," he told reporters at
the United Nations.
Sources; Emerite 24
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