Yahoo – AFP, January
21, 2016
Jeddah
(Saudi Arabia) (AFP) - A global Muslim body on Thursday condemned the attacks
on Saudi missions in Iran earlier this month and denounced Tehran's regional
"interference".
Foreign
ministers of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, in a statement, said it
"condemns the aggressions against the missions of the Kingdom of Saudi
Arabia in Tehran and Mashhad".
The
statement followed an extraordinary meeting requested by Saudi Arabia after
protesters in Iran burned Riyadh's embassy in Tehran and a consulate in the
second city of Mashhad.
Such
"aggressions" contravene international law as well as the OIC
charter, said the communique, which member state Iran rejected.
The
violence against Riyadh's missions occurred after the kingdom executed
dissident Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr, a driving force behind anti-government
protests.
Sunni Saudi
Arabia and some of its allies cut diplomatic ties with Shiite Iran as a result
of the violence against its missions.
Nimr was
one of four Shiites put to death on January 2 alongside 43 Sunnis. All were
convicted of "terrorism".
The
57-member OIC said it "rejects and condemns Iran's inflammatory
statements" over the executions, "considering those statements a
blatant interference in the internal affairs" of Saudi Arabia.
It also
denounced "Iran's interference in the internal affairs of the states of
the region and other member states (including Bahrain, Yemen and Syria and
Somalia) and its continued support for terrorism".
Iran's
Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi attended the meeting but his country
"declared its rejection of the communique," the document said.
It added
that Lebanon also "distances itself" from the meeting's final
statement.
The OIC
calls itself the collective voice of the Muslim world.
Tensions
between the leading Sunni and Shiite nations have caused concern around the
globe. China, France and Pakistan have all sought a de-escalation.
'Continuous attacks'
At the
start of Thursday's meeting, OIC Secretary General Iyad Madani called for
"building bridges of understanding and restoring mutual trust"
through dialogue.
This will
prevent conflicts "that will waste energy and hinder the development of
our people," he said.
Tensions
between members "distract us from addressing the real challenges",
including "terrorism", which threaten members of the organisation,
Madani told the group based in the Saudi Red Sea city of Jeddah.
The final
communique underscored the "importance of reinforcing relations of good
neighbourliness" among members.
Iran sacked
a senior security official over his failure to stop the attack on Riyadh's
embassy, while Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Wednesday said
the attack was against Islam.
But Saudi
Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir charged at Thursday's meeting that Iran
respects neither Islam nor the charter of the OIC.
"The
importance of this meeting is in the fact that this aggression is not the first
but only a part of a series of continuous attacks that diplomatic missions have
been subjected to in Iran for 35 years," Jubeir said.
"It is
important to point out that the aggression against the kingdom's missions comes
as part of Iran's aggressive policies and its continuous interference in the
internal issues of the countries in the region".
Saudi
Arabia and Iran support opposite sides in the conflicts in Syria and Yemen.
Iran has also consolidated its influence in Iraq and Lebanon.
Riyadh had
also called for an emergency meeting of the Arab League after the attack on its
missions.
The Cairo-based
body on January 10 expressed full support for Saudi Arabia in dealing with the
"hostile acts and provocations of Iran".
#UPDATE Iran's return to international stage 'now possible': Hollande https://t.co/VUCefOxkZr pic.twitter.com/LIoQrRldVh
— AFP news agency (@AFP) January 21, 2016
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