Iran advises Saudi to stop ‘hasty’ and ‘irrational’ moves

Iran’s First Vice President Es’haq Jahangiri has called on Saudi officials to stop taking “hasty” and “irrational” measures, in the wake of Riyadh’s decision to sever diplomatic ties with Tehran.

Speaking in the Iranian capital of Tehran on Monday, Jahangiri said Saudi Arabia, not Iran, will be the one to suffer as a result of the severance of relations.

On Sunday, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir announced his country was cutting diplomatic relations with Iran. Saudi Arabia had just executed prominent Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, and faced strong protest from the Iranian government and people.

Demonstrations were held in front of the Saudi embassy in Tehran and its consulate in the northeastern city of Mashhad by angry protesters censuring the Al Saud family for the killing of the top cleric.

Amid the largely peaceful protests, a group of people scaled the walls of the consulate in Mashhad while incendiary devices were hurled at the embassy in Tehran. Some 50 people were detained over the violation of the diplomatic perimeters.