News / Politics

Iran protests to Saudi Arabia over visa denial

Sunday, 28 February 2016 4:52 PM [ Last Update: Sunday, 28 February 2016 4:50 PM ]

Hamid Ba’eedinejad, the director general for political and international security affairs at Iran’s Foreign Ministry

Iran has communicated to Saudi Arabia its protest at Riyadh’s refusal to issue visas for an Iranian political delegation that sought to join a meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in the Saudi kingdom.

The meeting, which will gather senior officials from the 57-member body’s members, is to take place over Sunday and Monday in the port city of Jeddah in eastern Saudi Arabia. It is to draft documents and resolutions that are to be addressed in the OIC’s upcoming gathering in Istanbul, Turkey.

On Sunday, Hamid Ba’eedinejad, the director general for political and international security affairs at Iran’s Foreign Ministry, said the visa denial was “against the law” and “discriminatory,” saying the Islamic Republic has notified relevant Saudi authorities of its objection to the move.

“Any decision to be taken in Jeddah in the absence of the Iranian political delegation lacks any official status and credit,” he emphasized.

Saudi Arabia severed diplomatic relations with Iran in early January following attacks on vacant Saudi diplomatic perimeters by protesters in the Iranian cities of Tehran and Mashhad. The attacks occurred during large-scale otherwise peaceful protests censuring the Al Saud family’s killing of senior Saudi opposition cleric Nimr al-Nimr.

The international community has lambasted Riyadh over executing the clergyman, who was a vociferous critic of the Saudi kingdom’s policies.

Bahraini protesters hold placards bearing the portraits of prominent cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr during clashes with riot police in the village of Sitra, south of the capital, Manama, January 8, 2016. (Photo by AFP)

In the aftermath of the rupture, Switzerland undertook to represent Iranian interests in Saudi Arabia and vice versa.

Since breaking the ties, Saudi Arabia has been following its long-held anti-Iran agenda more forcefully at various gathering of the Muslim world’s personalities, using the meetings to condemn the Islamic Republic over the protests.

Ba’eedinejad expressed hope that Riyadh would start adopting a “realistic” policy this time. By doing so, he said, the kingdom would prevent the OIC from becoming preoccupied with peripheral matters and instead address issues of priority for the Muslim world, including Palestine, sectarianism, terrorism, and problems shared by the worldwide Muslim nation.

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