Sudan, Bahrain join Saudi in cutting ties with Iran

Iran accused Saudi Arabia on Monday of using an attack on its embassy as a pretext to sever ties in a diplomatic crisis deepening their often violent struggle for influence across the Middle East. Saudi Arabia cut ties with Iran late Sunday and fellow-Sunni Bahrain followed suit on Monday, two days after Iranian demonstrators stormed the Saudi embassy in Tehran in protest at Riyadh's execution of a senior Shiite cleric. Sudan also decided to cut diplomatic ties with Iran and expel the Iranian ambassador on Monday. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) also downgraded its ties with Iran, as the dispute between the region's top Sunni and Shiite powers rippled across the region, driving up oil prices and threatening to widen the Middle East's sectarian divide. According to Reuters, Saudi Arabia plans to end air traffic and trade links with Iran and demand that Tehran must "act like a normal country" before it would restore severed diplomatic relations. A man was shot dead in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province late on Sunday when security officers came under fire, and two Sunni mosques in Iraq's Shiite-majority Hilla province were bombed. After a furious response in Shiite communities worldwide to the Sunni kingdom's execution of Shiite Muslim cleric Nimr al-Nimr, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir accused Iran of creating "terrorist cells" among the kingdom's Shiite minority. Iran retorted that Riyadh had used the embassy incident and a similar attack on its consulate in the Iranian city of Mashhad as an "excuse" to stoke tensions. Oil prices rose almost 2 percent, overcoming economic weakness in Asia, as the two big petroleum exporters traded insults and tensions spilled into other crude producers such as Iraq. Stock markets across the Gulf dropped sharply, led by Qatar which fell more than 2.5 percent, with geopolitical jitters outweighing any benefit from stronger oil. Crude importer China declared itself "highly concerned" with the developments, in a rare foray into Middle East diplomacy. The US and Germany called for restraint, while Russia offered to mediate an end to the dispute. The tensions threatened to derail efforts to end Syria's five-year-old civil war, where Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Arab powers support rebel groups against Iran-backed President Bashar al-Assad. 'Divine revenge' Saudi Arabia executed Nimr and three other Shiites on terrorism charges on Saturday, alongside dozens of Sunni jihadists. Shiite Iran hailed him as a "martyr" and warned Saudi Arabia's ruling Al Saud family of "divine revenge." Shiite groups united in condemnation of Saudi Arabia while Sunni powers rallied behind the kingdom, hardening a sectarian split that has torn apart communities across the Middle East. Al-Azhar, the Cairo-based seat of Sunni Muslim learning, and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation in Saudi Arabia, condemned the attacks on Riyadh's missions and stressed Tehran's obligation to respect the internal affairs of the kingdom. The UAE, an ally of Saudi Arabia that is also home to hundreds of thousands of Iranians, cut the number of Iranian diplomats allowed in the country, after summoning the ambassador to protest "Iran's interference in Saudi Arabia." The Yemeni government on Monday announced a curfew in the port city of Aden, a beachhead for Saudi and UAE forces waging war on the Shiite Houthi group that controls much of the country. A cease-fire collapsed on Saturday. Western powers, many of which supply billions of dollars' worth of weaponry to Gulf Arab powers, tried to tamp down the tensions with Iran but also deplored the executions, as human rights groups strongly criticized Saudi Arabia's judicial process and protesters gathered outside Saudi embassies.