January 05, 2015

Bahrain, Sudan join Saudi Arabia in cutting ties with Iran as row over Shiite Sheikh execution continues

January 4, 2016

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

The decision from Bahrain was triggered by "cowardly" attacks on the Saudi diplomatic mission in Iran and "increasing flagrant and dangerous meddling" by Tehran in the internal affairs of Gulf and Arab states, a statement said.

Sudan's foreign ministry later released a statement saying: "In response to the barbaric attacks on the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Tehran and its consulate in Mashhad ... the government of Sudan announces the immediate severing of ties with the Islamic Republic of Iran."

Saudi Arabia cut ties with Iran after Iranian protesters attacked its mission there , angered by the Sunni Muslim kingdom's decision to execute Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, a leading Shiite cleric.

Iranian diplomats in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain have been given a 48-hour deadline to leave.

Saudi Arabia later widened its rift with Iran, saying it would end all air traffic and trade with Iran, according to Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir.

Insisting Riyadh would react to "Iranian aggression", Mr Jubeir accused Tehran of despatching fighters to Arab countries and plotting attacks inside the kingdom and its Gulf neighbours.

The United Arab Emirates — an ally of both Saudi Arabia and Bahrain — has said it would downgrade its diplomatic representation in Iran and limit the number of Iranian diplomats in the country, state news agency WAM reported.

Sheikh Nimr was beheaded on the weekend after Saudi authorities accused him of inciting his followers to violence , but he was hailed in Iran as a champion of the rights of Saudi Arabia's marginalised Shiite minority.

Bahrain, like Saudi Arabia, has a Sunni royal family, while Iran is the main Shiite power.

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