|
 Iran was committed to protecting its foreign diplomatic missions,
the ministry added.
Iranian protesters stormed the Saudi embassy in the early hours of
Sunday after Saudi Arabia executed Shi'ite cleric Nimr al-Nimr,
prompting Riyadh to withdraw its diplomatic staff and order Iranian
diplomats to leave the kingdom.
The protesters lit fires and smashed furniture in the embassy before
being cleared out by the police, who made 40 arrests. No Saudi
diplomats were in the embassy. Iranian officials condemned the
attack as well as Nimr's execution.
 "Iran has acted in accordance with its (diplomatic) obligations to
control the broad wave of popular emotion that arose," foreign
ministry spokesman Hossein Jaberi Ansari said in televised remarks.
"Saudi Arabia benefits and thrives on prolonging tensions... (It)
has used this incident as an excuse to fuel the tensions," he added.
[to top of second column] |
Ansari said Iranian diplomats had not yet left Saudi Arabia. They
were given 48 hours to leave late on Sunday night.
(Reporting by Sam Wilkin, Editing by William Maclean and John
Stonestreet)
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