Iran: World Muslim body bowed to Saudi agenda

Iran accused the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation Friday of bowing to Riyadh's agenda after the world Muslim body condemned Tehran over the attacks on Saudi diplomatic missions in the country.

The statement issued at the end of an OIC meeting Thursday at its headquarters in the Saudi city of Jeddah "ignored the reality over the incident at the Saudi embassy and the rapid actions of the Islamic republic... to calm the situation", said foreign ministry spokesman Hossein Jaber Ansari.

Ansari, quoted by state news agency IRNA, said the OIC had "in effect put itself at the service of the objectives of a single country" by raising the issue although it was not on the agenda of the Jeddah meeting.

A final statement, issued after a meeting of foreign ministers of the 57-member grouping, said the OIC "condemns the aggressions against the missions of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in Tehran and Mashhad".

It followed an extraordinary meeting requested by Saudi Arabia after protesters in Iran in early January set fire to the embassy in Tehran and a consulate in the second city of Mashhad.

Such "aggressions" contravene international law as well as the OIC charter, said the communique, which member state Iran rejected.

The violence against Riyadh's missions occurred after Saudi Arabia executed dissident Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr, a driving force behind anti-government protests in the kingdom.

Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia and some of its allies cut diplomatic ties with Shiite-dominated Iran as a result of the attacks on its missions.
Source :AFP