Rezaei Urges Action over Saudi Behaviour

“Saudi officials are not going to change their conduct with the [current] restraint shown by Iran,” Rezaei said on Monday May 23, urging action against Riyadh.

“The Saudis opened a consulate in Iraq’s Erbil and deployed a number of terrorist groups to Iran to carry out bomb operations, all of whom were arrested (by the Iranian security forces),” Rezaei told reporters in the western city of Khorramabad.

He further called on the Foreign Ministry to release documents revealing connections between those groups and Saudi Arabia to let other countries know how Saudis are “maniacally disturbing the region’s calm and safe atmosphere and pursuing acts of terrorism.”

Relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia have been tense in recent months.

Tensions between the two Persian Gulf countries ran high mainly due to Riyadh’s execution of prominent Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, and a subsequent attack by outraged Iranian protesters on the Saudi embassy in Tehran, which resulted in the Arab country’s decision to sever its ties with the Islamic Republic.

On January 2, Saudi Arabia announced that it has executed Sheikh Nimr, among dozens of others. The execution ignited widespread international condemnation, from both political and religious figures.

The next day, furious demonstrators in the Iranian cities of Tehran and Mashhad stormed Saudi Arabia’s diplomatic buildings in protest at the execution of Sheikh Nimr.

Although Iranian officials criticized the embassy attack and police arrested dozens involved, Saudi Arabia cut off diplomatic relations with the Islamic Republic.