01 January 2016By Abdulrahman Al-Rashed
This is the worst phase of confrontation between Saudi Arabia and Iran in
thirty years and therefore the stances of solidary countries like the UAE,
Bahrain and Sudan to shut down and downgrade their diplomatic missions with
Iran bears an important meaning for Riyadh. Tehran resorts to the use of
violence and thuggery against governments that differ with it and Riyadh
responds with its political weight and its international relations.
At the time when smoke from the scorched Saudi embassy in Tehran was still
rising, the spokesman for the Iranian foreign ministry expressed his surprise
at the Saudis for withdrawing their mission and closing the burnt building! He
said that there is no justification for Saudi's behaviour as though he was a
spokesman for a peaceful country like Scandinavia despite the Saudi embassy
burning in front of the eyes of Iranian police who were content to observe.
Saudi Arabia did well to close its embassy and recall its diplomats because
the Iranian authorities have always targeted embassies and diplomatic missions
in every crisis, and its history is amongst the worst countries in the world.
Saudis remember the awful assassination of a Saudi diplomat in Karachi by an
Iranian man four years ago and Pakistan is still demanding his handover. In
addition to this, Iran orchestrated a bomb in the Saudi embassy in Beirut, and
US security previously thwarted an Iranian plot to assassinate the then Saudi
ambassador in Washington who is now the Minister of Foreign Affairs Adel Al
Jubeir; the defendant was convicted and sent to prison. The former Saudi
ambassador to Lebanon Abdulaziz Khoja was subjected to threats which forced
him to return, ''demonstrators'' killed a Saudi employee at the embassy in Iran
by throwing him from the third floor and another Saudi diplomat was attacked
and his eyes gouged out.
In serious crises, diplomats are all important. However, Iranian authorities
did not give ambassadors an opportunity to work. The burning of the Saudi
embassy in Tehran was in fact carried out by employees of one of the security
forces claiming that they were demonstrators. No one believes the claims that
they were protestors because this has happened many times. Every time Iran
differs with a country, that country's embassy is surrounded by
demonstrations, stones are thrown at it, it is invaded, employees are attacked
and property is looted.
Al Rashed is the general manager of Al -Arabiya television. He is also the
former editor-in-chief of Asharq Al- Awsat, and the leading Arabic weekly
magazine, Al Majalla. He is also a senior Columnist in the daily newspapers
of Al Madina and Al Bilad. He is a US post-graduate degree in mass
communications. He has been a guest on many TV current affairs programs. He
is currently based in Dubai.
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EsinIslam.Com
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