Over 45 Muslim countries from OIC condemned Iran over attack on S. Arabia Embassy

JEDDAH

Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi (R) speaks with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu during an emergency meeting of the (OIC) in the Saudi city of Jeddah, on January 21, 2016, following an attack by protesters on the Saudi embassy in Tehran. / AFP / FAYEZ NURELDINE

Over 45 Muslim countries have condemned Iran for a recent attack on the Saudi Embassy and for supporting terrorism at a meeting organized by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). 

The OIC, the world’s second largest inter-governmental organization after the United Nations, held an extraordinary meeting of its foreign ministers, which Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu also attended, on Jan. 21 at the OIC HQ in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in order to discuss the recent attack on a Saudi embassy in Iran. 

In the final statement of the meeting, which was attended by over 45 members of the OIC, ministers condemned “the aggressions against the missions of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in Tehran and Mashhad, which constitute a flagrant violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961.” 
Iranian protesters ransacked and set fire to the Saudi Embassy in Tehran on Jan. 2 after Saudi Arabia executed an outspoken Shiite cleric and activist, Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, who had criticized the kingdom’s treatment of its Shiite minority.

The statement went on to say “these aggressions contravene the Charter of the OIC and the Charter of the United Nations.”

The communiqué also denounced “Iran’s interference in the internal affairs of the states of the region and other member states [of Bahrain, Yemen, Syria and Somalia] and its continued support for terrorism.”

The statement stressed the need for “non-interference in the internal affairs of member states, particularly those affairs that are within internal legislation” as per the United Nations Charter and the OIC Charter.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia has continued its intervention in the Yemeni Civil War, which has seen continuous fighting between Shiite Houthi rebels and official government forces, supported by Saudi Arabian airstrikes.