Saudi embassy attack ‘totally unjustifiable’: Iran President

Iran’s President today condemned the Saudi execution of a Shiite cleric but also denounced attacks on the Sunni kingdom’s embassy and consulate as “totally unjustifiable” after protesters stormed the compounds.

“The actions last night by a group of radicals in Tehran and Mashhad leading to damage at the Saudi embassy and consulate are totally unjustifiable, as the buildings should be legally and religiously protected in the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Hassan Rouhani said, quoted by the official IRNA news agency.

At least 44 people were arrested late yesterday for storming the diplomatic missions in Tehran and Mashhad after Saudi Arabia announced it had executed prominent Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr and 46 other men on “terrorism” charges. In Tehran protesters threw petrol bombs and stormed the embassy. The kingdom’s consulate in Mashhad, Iran’s second biggest city in the country’s northeast, was also set on fire. But Rouhani criticised Saudi Arabia for killing Nimr.

“I have no doubt that the Saudi government has damaged its image, more than before, among the countries in the world -- in particular (among) Islamic countries -- by this un-Islamic act,” he said in a statement. Yet, the people of Iran “will not allow rogue elements” to use the incident and “carry out illegal actions that damage the dignity of the Islamic republic establishment”, he added. “I call on the interior minister to identify the perpetrators of this attack with firm determination and introduce them to the judiciary... so that there will be an end to such appalling actions once and for all.”  Earlier today Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said Saudi politicians would face “divine revenge” for their actions. Khamenei described Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr as a “martyr” who acted peacefully. Protesters stormed the Saudi embassy in Tehran late on Saturday, setting fire to the building before being driven back by police.

Sheikh Nimr was one of 47 people executed for terrorism offences. But Ayatollah Khamenei said the cleric had been executed for his opposition to Saudi Arabia’s Sunni rulers. “This oppressed scholar had neither invited people to armed movement, nor was involved in covert plots,” the ayatollah tweeted. Sheikh Nimr had been a figurehead in the anti-government protests that erupted in the wake of the Arab Spring up to his arrest in 2012.