Saudi Arabia widened its rift with Iran’s regime on Monday, saying it would end air traffic and trade links with the Islamic republic and demanding that Tehran must “act like a normal country” before it would restore severed diplomatic relations.
Insisting Riyadh would react to “Iranian aggression”, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir told Reuters in an interview that Tehran has been dispatching fighters to Arab countries and plotting attacks inside the kingdom and its Gulf neighbors.
“There is no escalation on the part of Saudi Arabia. Our moves are all reactive. It is the Iranians who went into Lebanon. It is the Iranians who sent their Qods Force and their Revolutionary Guards into Syria,” he said.
Iranian pilgrims would still be welcome to visit Islam’s holiest sites in Mecca and Medina in western Saudi Arabia, either for the annual haj or at other times of year on the umrah pilgrimage, he said.