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Riyadh — The diplomatic crisis surrounding Saudi Arabia and Iran widened yesterday as Kuwait recalled its ambassador to Tehran in the face of growing international concern.

Joining Riyadh and its Sunni Arab allies in taking diplomatic action, Kuwait said it was withdrawing its envoy over a weekend attack on the Saudi embassy in Tehran.

Kuwait’s move came after the UN Security Council strongly condemned the attack, carried out by protesters angry over Saudi Arabia’s execution of a prominent Shi’ite cleric.

Tensions between Saudi Arabia, the main Sunni power, and Shi’ite-dominated Iran have erupted this week into a full-blown diplomatic crisis, sparking widespread worries of regional instability.

Iran lashed out again at Saudi Arabia for the execution on Tuesday, with President Hassan Rouhani accusing Riyadh of seeking to “cover its crime” by severing ties.

“One does not respond to criticism by cutting off heads,” Rouhani said, referring to the usual Saudi practice of carrying out executions with beheading by the sword.

Washington and other Western powers have called for calm amid fears the dispute could raise sectarian tensions across the Middle East and derail efforts to resolve conflicts from Syria to Yemen.

The Security Council joined those calls late on Monday, issuing a statement urging all sides to “take steps to reduce tensions in the region”.

The statement by the 15-member council condemned “in the strongest terms” the attacks which saw protesters firebomb the Saudi embassy in Tehran and its consulate in Iran’s second-biggest city Masshad.

But the council made no mention of the event that set off the crisis — Saudi Arabia’s execution on Saturday of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, a cleric and activist whose death sparked widespread protests among Shi’ites.

Saudi Arabia cut off diplomatic ties with Tehran in protest at the attacks on Sunday and has severed air links with Iran.

Some of its allies among Sunni Arab states followed suit, with Bahrain and Sudan breaking off ties and the United Arab Emirates downgrading relations on Monday.

Kuwait said Tuesday the embassy attacks “represent a flagrant breach of international agreements and norms and a grave violation of Iran’s international commitments”.

Rouhani has condemned the attacks and Tehran’s mission to the UN vowed in a letter to the Security Council to “take necessary measures to prevent the occurrence of similar incidents in the future”.

Iranian officials have brushed aside the dispute, with government spokesperson Mohammad Bagher Nobakht saying Tuesday it “will have no impact on Iran’s national development”.

“It’s Saudi Arabia that will suffer,” he said.

US Secretary of State John Kerry called his Iranian and Saudi counterparts on Monday to urge calm as European leaders raised concerns and Moscow offered to act as an intermediary.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon also spoke by phone with the Saudi and Iranian foreign ministers to urge them to “avoid any actions that could further exacerbate the situation,” Ban’s spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said.

“A breakdown of relations between Riyadh and Tehran could have very serious consequences for the region,” Dujarric said.

Meanwhile, Bahraini regime forces have arrested at least 35 people during a protest against Saudi Arabia’s recent execution of a prominent Shia clergyman.

Yesterday afternoon, hundreds of people took to the streets of Sitra, situated some 12 kilometers (seven miles) southeast of the Bahraini capital city of Manama, to voice their anger at the Al Saud regime’s killing of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr.

Bahraini police used tear gas and birdshot to disperse the protesters, some of whom were throwing gasoline bombs. Several demonstrators suffered birdshot wounds.

Sheikh Nimr was a supporter of the Bahraini uprising against the Al Khalifa regime, which began in February 2011.

On January 2, the Saudi Interior Ministry announced that the cleric along with 46 others, who were convicted of being involved in “terrorism” and adopting a “Takfiri” ideology, had been put to death.

The Saudi execution has come under widespread criticism – though mildly – from the EU and the US as well as some of the kingdom’s own allies.

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon also expressed deep dismay at the execution, calling on the Riyadh regime to commute all death sentences handed down in the kingdom.

Nimr, a critic of the Riyadh regime, was arrested in 2012 in the Qatif region of Shia-dominated Eastern Province, which was the scene of peaceful anti-regime demonstrations at the time. — AFP-PressTV.