The state-run Kuwait News Agency reported the news. A source at the Foreign Ministry blasted Iran for its alleged violations of the commitment to provide security to diplomatic missions – an accusation Iran has always refuted.
Kuwait’s move is the latest in a series of decisions taken by those siding with Saudi Arabia in its fall-out with Iran – a situation which began after the execution by Riyadh of a prominent Shia cleric, along with 46 other people. This was followed by condemnation by Iran, and later by angry Iranian protesters storming the Saudi Embassy in Tehran.
This led to an international outcry over Iran’s alleged unwillingness to ensure the safety of diplomatic missions on its soil.
The move by Kuwait follows the decision by Bahrain and Sudan to sever all diplomatic ties with Iran, and the United Arab Emirates to limit the number of Iranian diplomats allowed within its borders.
Sudan has now given Iranian diplomats two weeks to leave the country, AP reports. This comes a day after Khartoum informed Riyadh of its solidarity with Saudi Arabia on the Iranian matter and announced the expulsion of Iran’s ambassador.
The international community has been urging both sides to make efforts at de-escalation, among them Russia, who offered to act as a neutral mediator between the two.
The same suggestion was made by France.
The escalating spat between Iran and Saudi Arabia could derail all efforts at solving the problem of Syria, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier told BILD in an interview on Tuesday. He expressed a wish that both sides would focus urgently on solving their differences and then on working together to find political solutions to crises like Syria and Yemen. The region, he said, requires Tehran and Riyadh to be “responsible players”.