Iranian students protest outside Saudi mission: reports

AFP: Iranian students Thursday began a three-day sit-in outside Saudi Arabia’s embassy in Tehran to condemn Riyadh’s military intervention in Bahrain and to back protests there, media reports said.

TEHRAN, April 21, 2011 (AFP) – Iranian students Thursday began a three-day sit-in outside Saudi Arabia’s embassy in Tehran to condemn Riyadh’s military intervention in Bahrain and to back protests there, media reports said.

The students chanted “Death to Al-Saud!” and “Death to Al-Khalifa!”, referring to the respective Sunni ruling dynasties in Saudi Arabia and Shiite majority Bahrain.

They also chanted slogans such as “Death to America!” and “Death to Israel!”, the official Iranian media reported.

The sit-in comes two days after Iran’s foreign ministry assured Saudi Arabia that it would provide security to Riyadh’s mission in Tehran after the kingdom threatened to withdraw its diplomats following similar protests outside the mission 10 days ago.

Iran’s Fars news agency reported that “six to seven petrol bombs were hurled against the embassy” during the earlier protests.

On April 17, Saudi Arabia threatened to recall its diplomats from Iran unless the Islamic republic improved their security.

Iran has repeatedly condemned the dispatch of Saudi troops to Bahrain to support the Bahraini forces’ crackdown on demonstrations there by Shiites who form the majority of the population of the country.

Iran is predominantly a Shiite Muslim country.