State sponsor or terror, Saudi Arabia, breaks off diplomatic ties with Iran

Insightful comments from Zerohedge readers….

Pinto Currency:
Iran has been trading oil for gold recently.

Saudi has been taking soon to be worthless Western paper money – even buying Citi and FaceBook shares with some of it. When Saudi citizens wake up to their wealth being converted to Western garbage, they will not be very happy.

So Saudi chops off some heads and starts a war. Their way of changing the subject.

e_goldstein:
The Sauds are actually starting another war. They are already at war in Yemen (and funding ISIS in Syria).

Desperate despots.

Sudden Debt:
Europe should sever diplomatic ties with the Saudis also.

Sure America would protest that it would put their masters in a disadvantage but… fuck that…

HowdyDoody:
It seems to be a popular Saudi pastime – severing things.

JustObserving:
SAUDI TO FIGHT TERRORISM IN ALL OF ITS FORMS: AL-JUBEIR
They are going to arrest and prosecute the Saudi Royal Family then?

Sudden Debt:
No, they’ll send their American lapdogs to fight them.

Sure, there will be casualties… but it’ for Allah.

Via Zerohedge…

Jubeir said the attack in Tehran was in line with what he said were earlier Iranian assaults on foreign embassies there and with Iranian policies of destabilizing the region by creating “terrorist cells” in Saudi Arabia.

“The kingdom, in light of these realities, announces the cutting of diplomatic relations with Iran and requests the departure of delegates of diplomatic missions of the embassy and consulate and offices related to it within 48 hours. The ambassador has been summoned to notify them,” he said.

Riyadh also claims Iran did not attempt to stop protesters from storming the consulate.

Here’s are the main bullet points:

• SAUDI TO FIGHT TERRORISM IN ALL OF ITS FORMS: AL-JUBEIR
• IRAN HAS SPREAD CHAOS, SECTARIANISM IN REGION, MINISTER SAYS
• AL-JUBEIR COMMENTS BROADCAST ON AL-EKHBARIYA SAUDI STATE TV
• ALL OPTIONS ON TABLE TO PROTECT SAUDIS, FOREIGN MINISTER SAYS
• IRAQ PROMISED TO PROTECT SAUDI DIPLOMATIC MISSIONS: AL-JUBEIR
• SAUDI ARABIA DETERMINED NOT TO ALLOW IRAN TO UNDERMINE SAUDI SECURITY-FOREIGN MINISTER

For those who might have missed it, the situation began to unravel on Saturday after Riyadh said it had executed prominent Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr along with 46 other prisoners. Protesters poured into the streets from Bahrain to Pakistan and before the night was done, the Saudi embassy in Tehran was in flames.

All of this comes as Iran is projecting its influence in Iraq, Syria, and Yemen, posing a threat to Saudi regional hegemony just as international sanctions on Tehran are set to be lifted.

The comments from Al-Jubeir seem to indicate that Riyadh is set to step up efforts to rein in the so-called “Shiite crescent”, possibly by getting more involved in Syria, doubling down on the kingdom’s commitment to the fight in Yemen, and, quite possibly, taking a more assertive role in Iraq by using the fight against ISIS as a smokescreen for some manner of intervention.

It’s also worth noting how absurd it is for the Saudis to suggest that the Iranians are the ones “spreading chaos and sectarianism” in the region. After all, it wasn’t Tehran that just executed a prominent member of another sect and it’s not Iran that preaches a dangerous, ultra puritanical interpretation of Islam similar to that which Sunni extremists use to justify the execution of apostates. Further, it wasn’t Iran that destabilized Syria by fanning the flames of sectarian discord.

In any event, this an exceptionally serious situation that could well mushroom into a direct conflict between the two countries which are already on opposite sides of multiple regional proxy wars.

References:

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-01-03/its-saudis-sever-diplomatic-ties-iran-wil-confront-hostile-iranian-actions-region