Riyadh Made “Double Mistake” by Cutting Ties with Iran: Analyst
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – A senior Lebanese analyst deplored as “grave mistakes” the recent decisions by the Saudi Arabian regime to go ahead with the execution of prominent Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr as well as its subsequent severance of ties with Iran.
In a Wednesday interview with the Tasnim News Agency, Hisham Jaber, the director of the Center for Middle East Studies, said the execution of Sheikh Nimr was a great political mistake and an unconsidered decision.
It was not at all in line with the interests of Saudi Arabia and the Muslim world, the retired Lebanese general added.
He went on to say that it was quite natural and expected that the move would be condemned not only by Iran but the entire international community.
The execution ignited widespread international condemnation, from both political and religious figures.
On Sunday, furious demonstrators in the Iranian cities of Tehran and Mashhad stormed Saudi Arabia’s diplomatic buildings in protest at the Al Saud’s execution of Sheikh Nimr.
Iranian officials criticized the embassy attack and police arrested several individuals involved, but the Saudi foreign ministry announced on Sunday it was cutting diplomatic ties with the Islamic Republic following the angry protests in Iran.
Jaber said the Saudi regime used the incident as a pretext to cut off its relations with Iran, and described the move as their “double mistake”.
“Saudi Arabia made a mistake by executing Sheikh Nimr … and tried to make up for the mistake by making the much greater mistake of cutting its ties with Tehran,” he explained.
Jaber also suggested that a recent nuclear deal finalized by Tehran and world powers, which will terminate all anti-Iran sanctions and bring the country back into the global community, might have scared and worried the Saudi regime.
In similar remarks yesterday, Spokesman for the Iranian Administration Mohammad Baqer Nobakht said that the recent unreasonable moves by the Saudi regime are aimed at impeding the implementation of the nuclear deal.
Certain regional countries, along with the Zionist regime, have spared no effort to prevent the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) – the text of the nuclear deal – from being implemented, Nobakht said at his weekly press conference.
Saudi Arabia’s unconsidered and condemned moves in recent developments are not unrelated to the issue of JCPOA, he noted, expressing the hope that such measures would be thwarted once again, after certain countries failed to prevent the finalization of the deal in July.
