Saudi Arabia is mounting tensions with Iran in order to hurt progress on Syrian peace talks, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Zarif said on Sunday in an official statement.
Saudi Arabia called together a meeting of the Arab League on Sunday, in order to condemn Iran for what it calls interference in the region. The new conflict with Saudi Arabia has been called a 'war of the embassies' by Iranian officials, referencing the 1980s Iran-Iraq War's mutual missile attacks, dubbed the "War of the Cities."
"Saudi Arabia's approach is to create tension intended to negatively affect the Syrian crisis," Zarif said in a Foreign Ministry statement cited by Reuters.
"These attacks clearly reflect the approach that the Iranian policy is taking in our Arab region specifically <…> with its interference in the affairs of the (region's) states and instigation of sectarian strife and shaking its security and stability," Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said in a comment carried by Reuters.
Saudi Arabia's "war of the embassies" will not benefit the country, according to Iran's Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hossein Jaber-Ansari, who told Iranian television that Iran seeks to reduce tensions. Jaber-Ansari added that Saudi Arabia must not be allowed to impose the costs of its policies on countries across the Middle Eastern region.
