Country says Saudi Arabia looking for an excuse to fuel tensions

08:44 - 04 January 2016

Iran says Saudi Arabia looking for an excuse to fuel tensions

Iranian protesters had stormed the Saudi embassy in the early hours of Sunday after Saudi Arabia executed a Shi'ite cleric, prompting Riyadh to withdraw its diplomatic staff and order Iranian diplomats to leave the kingdom.

Saudi Arabia used an attack on its embassy in Tehran as a pretext to fuel tensions, Iran's foreign ministry said on Monday in response to Riyadh's severing of relations, adding that Tehran was committed to protecting foreign diplomatic missions.

"Iran... is committed to provide diplomatic security based on international conventions. But Saudi Arabia, which thrives on tensions, has used this incident as an excuse to fuel the tensions," ministry spokesman Hossein Jaberi Ansari said in televised remarks.