USA TODAY
Jane Onyanga-Omara, USA TODAY
Bahrain and Sudan announced Monday they are severing diplomatic ties with Iran, one day after ally Saudi Arabia announced it was cutting ties with Tehran.
The move ramps up tensions in the region after Iranian protesters set fires at the Saudi Embassy over the weekend, in response to the Saudi execution of a prominent Shiite cleric.
WAM/Abu Dhabi
Bahrain shuts down mission, Sudan expels ambassador.
The UAE has decided to downgrade the level of its diplomatic representation in Iran to that of a charge d’ affaires and to require a reduction in the number of Iranian diplomats stationed in the UAE.
A Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement said that Saif Al Zaabi, the UAE Ambassador in Tehran, has been summoned home, in accordance with this decision.
The Wall Street Journal
REVIEW & OUTLOOK
Tehran demands waivers from a new law on visa entries to the U.S.
President Obama has staked much of his foreign-policy legacy on the Iran nuclear deal, but does that deal effectively give the Iranians veto power over legislation by the U.S. Congress? That’s the question at the center of Tehran’s “outrage” at a security law passed by Congress after the Paris and San Bernardino attacks.
By Angus McDowall
RIYADH (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia widened its rift with Iran on Monday, saying it would end air traffic and trade links with the Islamic republic and demanding that Tehran must “act like a normal country” before it would restore severed diplomatic relations.
Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir told Reuters in an interview that Tehran was responsible for rising tensions after the kingdom executed Shi’ite Muslim cleric Nimr al-Nimr on Saturday, describing him as a terrorist.
Al Arabiya News
Saudi Arabia announced late Sunday that it would officially sever ties with Iran after having two of its diplomatic posts attacked in the Islamic republic.
Saudi’s Foreign Minister Adel Jubeir, speaking in an address aired by Al Arabiya News Channel, said Iran’s diplomatic mission staff and related structures in Saudi Arabia had been given 48 hours to leave.
Riyadh (AFP) – Saudi Arabia accused Iran of sponsoring terror and undermining regional stability, as a diplomatic spat between both countries escalated Saturday over the kingdom’s execution of a prominent Shiite cleric.
“The Iranian regime is the last regime in the world that could accuse others of supporting terrorism, considering that (Iran) is a state that sponsors terror, and is condemned by the United Nations and many countries,” said a foreign ministry spokesman in a statement carried by the official SPA news agency.
BY JEFF MASON
HONOLULU (Reuters) – The White House expects Iran to finish work needed to trigger implementation of an international nuclear deal in the coming weeks, but Washington needs more time to prepare sanctions over its ballistic missile program, a U.S. official said on Saturday.
Iran Focus
London, 30 Dec – Iranian Revolutionary Guards ships launched rockets near the US aircraft-carrier Harry s. Truman and other coalition warships on 26 December, according to a US official who called that action “unsafe”. It said Iran gave very short notice before the tests.
Iran Focus
London, 29 Dec – Deaths from a swine flu outbreak in Iran have more than tripled in the past three weeks to at least 112, Agence France-Presse said Monday, quoting Iranian state media.
Mohammad Mehdi Gouya, head of the Health Ministry’s communicable diseases department, was quoted as saying the outbreak, which began in November, was under control and likely to diminish in coming days.
Iran Focus
Paris, 24 Dec – Muslims and Christians can rely on their “common values” to stand up to extremists who “pervert their religions”, Iranian opposition leader Maryam Rajavi said in a Christmas message on Thursday.
