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Iran-Saudi Arabia rift widens over Bahrain

DUBAI: The war of words between oil-rich Iran and Saudi Arabia is escalating dangerously following Riyadh's military intervention in Bahrain, where a security crackdown against pro-democracy dissidents shows no signs of abating.

On Monday, Major-General Yahya Rahim Safavi, a top advisor to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, bluntly warned Saudi Arabia that its intervention in Bahrain could boomerang. “The presence and attitude of Saudi Arabia [in Bahrain] sets an incorrect precedence for similar future events, and Saudi Arabia should consider this fact that one day the very same event may recur in Saudi Arabia itself and Saudi Arabia may come under invasion for the very same excuse,” General Safavi asserted.  Chairman of Iran's Joint Chiefs of Staff Major-General Hassan Firouzabadi reinforced the warning on Tuesday by calling the movement of Saudi Arabian troops into Bahrain, “as a blunder committed by the Saudi government”.

Embassy attacked

Earlier, Prince Turki bin Mohammad, Saudi Arabia's Deputy Foreign Minister threatened to pull out his country's diplomats from Iran unless Tehran improved their security cover. “I hope we won't be obliged to withdraw our diplomatic mission from Tehran if Iran fails to take the necessary measures to protect it,” he said, after protesting students last Monday hurled flaming Molotov cocktails at the Embassy building.

Around 1,000 Saudi troops last month moved into Bahrain at the invitation of the Bahraini government. They are part of a force belonging to the Gulf Cooperation Council, which also includes 500 personnel from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Kuwait. Within hours of their arrival, Bahraini forces launched a fierce crackdown at the Pearl Roundabout, where thousands of protesters demanding political reforms had encamped.

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