Saudi: Iran delaying investigations into embassy, consulate attacks

Saudi Arabia has accused the Iranian authorities of delaying investigations into the attack against the Saudi Embassy in Tehran and consulate in Mashhad which took place in 2016.

“Iran, despite an initial approval, has denied a Saudi team entry into Iran as part of a team investigating the attacks on the Saudi Arabian embassy in Tehran and its consulate in Mashhad. The Saudi team was delegated to work alongside Iranian authorities to inspect the two Saudi facilities and finalise the processes relating to them,” an official source in the Kingdom’s foreign ministry said.

The source said the Iranian authorities have resorted to extortion to gain political privileges inside the Kingdom.

According to the source, the delays reflect the Iranian government’s lack of respect for international laws and a violation of the inviolability of the diplomatic mission premises which Iran had used for 38 years.

Read: Saudi Arabia cuts diplomatic ties with Iran

The source stressed that, based on the above, the Kingdom will take all necessary actions that guarantee its diplomatic rights in accordance with the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and the provisions of international law.

Saudi Arabia severed diplomatic ties with Iran in early January 2016 following an attack on the Saudi Embassy in Tehran and the Saudi consulate in Mashhad in protest against the execution of Saudi Shia cleric Nimr Baqir Al-Nimr.