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Tuesday 05 Jan 2016 - 13:30 Makkah mean time-25-3-1437
Jeddah, (IINA) - Saudi Arabia took strong action against Iran on Monday by ending air traffic and trade ties with the ‘interventionist’ Gulf neighbor, demanding that Tehran must “act like a normal country” before it would restore severed diplomatic relations, Arab News reported.
Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir told Reuters in an interview that Tehran was responsible for rising tensions after the Kingdom executed Shiite cleric Nimr Al-Nimr on Saturday for terror acts.
Insisting that Riyadh would react to “Iranian aggression”, Al-Jubeir accused Tehran of dispatching fighters to Arab countries and plotting attacks inside the Kingdom and its Gulf neighbors.
“There is no escalation on the part of Saudi Arabia. Our moves are all reactive. It is the Iranians who went into Lebanon. It is the Iranians who sent their Qods Force and their Revolutionary Guards into Syria”, he said.
However, he said that Iranian pilgrims would still be welcome to visit Makkah and Madinah either for Hajj or at other times of year for the Umrah pilgrimage.
The General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) on Monday halted all flights to and from Iran, the authority said on its official Twitter account.
“Based on the Kingdom's announcement about severing of diplomatic relations with Iran, GACA is halting all flights from and to Iran”, the authority tweeted.
Al-Jubeir said that Saudi Arabia had been right to execute Al-Nimr, whom he accused of “agitating, organizing cells, providing them with weapons and money”.
After listing the crimes of 43 Al-Qaeda members also put to death on Saturday alongside four Shiites, Al-Jubeir said of the executions: “We should be applauded for this, not criticized”.
Meanwhile, the Saudi clubs participating in the Asian Champions League intend to demand to transfer their matches against the Iranian clubs to a neutral ground, Al-Arabiya reported.
AG/IINA
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