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Kuwait becomes latest Saudi ally to downgrade ties with Iran Saudi Arabia says Syrian peace talks remain on track, easing feud with Iran
(about 5 hours later)
BEIRUT — Kuwait became the latest in a growing list of Saudi Arabian allies to cut or downgrade ties with Iran, saying Tuesday that it has recalled its ambassador to Tehran in solidarity with the kingdom as tensions deepen. BEIRUT — Saudi Arabia said Tuesday that its feud with Iran would not interfere with Syrian peace talks scheduled to begin later this month, signaling an easing of the tensions that erupted after the kingdom’s execution of a prominent Shiite cleric.
The widening rifts — opened by the execution of a prominent Shiite cleric in Saudi Arabia on Saturday — have pitted Saudi Arabia and its Sunni allies against Tehran’s Shiite leadership. The confrontations could push the region dangerously closer to conflict and imperil critical objectives including peace efforts in Syria and the fight against the Islamic State. Kuwait meanwhile joined the list of Saudi allies to cut or downgrade ties with Iran, saying that it has recalled its ambassador to Tehran in solidarity with the kingdom following Riyadh’s severance of diplomatic relations with Iran on Sunday.
Calls for restraint have come from around the world as each side digs in. The rift is the most serious between the region’s rival Sunni and Shiite powers since Iran and Saudi Arabia last cut ties in the 1980s over tensions stemming from the Iran-Iraq war, and it raised the specter of a wider conflict in a region already convulsed by several wars.
Bahrain and Sudan earlier joined Saudi Arabia in severing diplomatic relations with Iran on Monday. The United Arab Emirates, a key Iranian trading partner, recalled its ambassador, and then Kuwait followed suit.
Shiite-led protests, meanwhile, have flared across the Middle East. In Tehran, the Saudi Embassy was ransacked and burned just hours after the cleric, Nimr Baqr al-Nimr, was put to death.
[The seven most important moments of the Saudi-Iranian rivalry][The seven most important moments of the Saudi-Iranian rivalry]
Nimr was a leading voice among Saudi Arabia’s Shiite minority, which has complained of discrimination and other pressures at the hands of the kingdom’s Sunni rulers. Saudi authorities convicted Nimr of terrorism-related acts. Among them is the war in Syria, which has raged unchecked for nearly five years and only now has emerged as a key priority for the Obama administration’s foreign policy team. Bringing peace to Syria will be the administration’s “foremost challenge” for the year ahead, Secretary of State John F. Kerry said in an opinion piece marking the New Year.
Among the worries is whether the impasse could set back attempts at finding a political formula to end the civil war in Syria, where Iran backs the government of President Bashar al-Assad and Saudi Arabia is on the opposite side as a major supporter of anti-Assad factions. Central to the challenge is the effort to reconvene peace talks in Geneva that failed spectacularly two years ago, after less than a month. The new rift between Saudi Arabia and Iran had imperiled those talks, which could not proceed without the support of both countries, as sponsors of the rival factions in Syria’s war.
After emergency talks in Riyadh, the United Nations’ special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, said Tuesday that Saudi leaders had expressed “clear determination” not to let the disputes derail Syrian peace bids. De Mistura next travels to Tehran to assess whether the talks between rival Syrian factions can go ahead as scheduled Jan. 25. Kerry spent most of the past two days on the telephone with Saudi and Iranian leaders as well as other coalition countries in the region “to encourage de-escalation,” according to Brett McGurk, President Obama’s special envoy to the coalition against the Islamic State group.
The diplomatic feud also could become an unwelcome distraction for Washington and its Western allies in the fight against the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq. “One of the key things on Kerry’s mind is not letting the Vienna process stall or fall backward,” said State Department spokesman John Kirby, referring to a statement in Vienna last year proposing ways to end the Syrian war that was agreed to by both Saudi Arabia and Iran.
The Obama administration, caught in the middle by its quest for a closer relationship with Iran and its long-standing alliance with Saudi Arabia, said it hoped Tehran and Riyadh would dial back the hostile rhetoric that has fueled the worst crisis between the regional rivals in decades. After meeting with Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir in Riyadh on Tuesday, the United Nations’ special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, said he had been assured that Saudi Arabia would not allow the latest falling-out with Iran to interfere with the talks.
“We’re urging all sides to show some restraint and to not further inflame tensions that are on quite vivid display in the region,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters in Washington. “There is a clear determination on the Saudi side that the current regional tensions will not have any negative impact on the Vienna momentum and on the continuation of the political process that the UN, together with the International Syria Support Group, intend to start in Geneva soon,” Mistura said after the meeting, according to a U.N. statement.
In other world capitals, the message was similar as concerns mounted. Saudi Arabia affirmed those sentiments, with the official Saudi press agency saying that the spat with Iran “would not affect” the peace talks “negatively.”
“We will continue working with you and the international community in order to reach a political solution for the Syrian crisis,” the agency quoted Jubeir as saying.
Jubeir also told de Mistura that Saudi Arabia would continue to provide “military, political and economic support to the Syrian people,” a reference to Saudi Arabia’s backing of the opposition to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government.
It remains unclear whether Iran will remain committed to the talks in light of the rupture. De Mistura is due to visit Iran for a previously scheduled meeting at the weekend, according to Iranian press reports.
But the State Department welcomed expressions of regret by Iran for the ransacking and burning of the Saudi embassy, contained in a letter to the United Nations from Iranian officials. A senior Obama administration official also noted that while Bahrain and Sudan had followed Saudi Arabia’s lead in severing relations with Iran, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates had only downgraded them.
The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive rift, which has presented the Obama administration with a dilemma: At a time when it is seeking improved relations with Iran, a long-standing U.S. enemy, a major rupture has taken place with its long-standing regional ally, Saudi Arabia.
The crisis erupted over the weekend after Saudi Arabia executed a prominent Shiite cleric, Nimr Baqr al-Nimr, triggering angry demonstrations in Tehran during which the Saudi Embassy was ransacked and burned.
[Who is the Saudi cleric whose death caused the Riyadh-Tehran blowup?][Who is the Saudi cleric whose death caused the Riyadh-Tehran blowup?]
Among the latest appeals, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu called on Saudi Arabia and Iran to immediately open “diplomatic channels” — perhaps through a third country — to ease the impasse. The crisis drew worldwide expressions of alarm and appeals for restraint, amid growing concerns for the potential for conflict in an already volatile region that controls access to a third of the world’s oil supply.
But there were few signs of outreach. DeYoung reported from Washington. Brian Murphy in Washington also contributed reporting.
In Tehran, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani accused Saudi Arabia of trying to “cover up its crime” of executing Nimr, who was among 47 prisoners put to death. It was the largest number of executions in the kingdom on a single day since 1980.
At a palace in Riyadh, meanwhile, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir met with his Egyptian counterpart, Sameh Shoukry, in efforts to bolster a common front. On Monday, Saudi Arabia pledged more than $3 billion in loans and other assistance for Egypt’s battered economy despite Riyadh’s own belt-tightening due to slumping oil prices.
In previous years, increased friction between OPEC giants would probably have sent oil prices sharply higher. But a current glut of oil on the market — coupled with a slowing economy in China — has kept oil prices relatively steady even among the deepening Saudi-Iranian crisis.
The official Saudi Press Agency quoted Jubeir as denouncing what he called Iranian-sponsored “terrorism, violence and extremism” around the region — clear references to divisions in flash points such as Syria and Yemen, where a Saudi-led coalition is fighting rebels who Saudi Arabia claims receive Iranian aid. Iran denies it.
[Can a Saudi-led “Islamic alliance” make a difference in anti-terror fight?]
And more diplomatic backlash is possible. The six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council, anchored by Saudi Arabia, plans to meet Saturday in Riyadh to discuss “the repercussions” of the attacks on the Saudi Embassy and the nation’s consulate in Mashhad in northeastern Iran.
Iran says it has arrested demonstrators responsible for the assault and has pledged to deter future attacks against all diplomatic facilities in Iran.
Yet the implications of the Saudi-Iranian rift extend far beyond their immediate rivalry as competing regional powerhouses and encompass almost all of the wars raging in the Middle East.
In another sign of fallout, Bahrain joined Saudi Arabia in suspending all air links with Iran. Bahrain had halted Iran flights from 2011 to 2014 after an Arab Spring-inspired uprising by the island nation’s large Shiite population.
Hundred of marchers protesting Nimr’s execution faced police tear gas and bird shot in Bahrain during a second day of clashes, news agencies reported.
[How Saudi Arabia and the Islamic State find common ground in beheadings]
“I don’t think this is going to open warfare, but it’s going to make the proxy battles worse,” said Mohamad Bazzi, a professor at New York University who is writing a book on Iranian-Saudi relations. “The pattern has been that when one side escalates, the other escalates. Now that is going to spiral.”
Also at risk is the war against the Islamic State, a conflict often obscured by the region’s many other rivalries.
“The growing sectarian polarization across the region will primarily benefit the Islamic State, which is promoting a sectarian narrative,” the London-based defense consulting company IHS said in a commentary.
Murphy reported from Washington.
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