The manager of King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh Yusuf Al-Abdan carries the child of a Saudi diplomatic mission member returning from Iran yesterday after the Saudi government’s decision to sever ties with Tehran (Photo: Meshaal Qadeer)

The political isolation of Iran increased yesterday after many Arab and Islamic countries expressed their solidarity with the Saudi Arabian stance regarding severing diplomatic ties with Tehran against the background of its intervention in the internal judicial affairs of Saudi Arabia and allowing the Saudi embassy in Tehran and the consulate in Mashhad to be attacked.

Both Bahrain and Sudan have decided to sever diplomatic ties with Iran and the UAE reduced its level of diplomatic representation.

The Deputy Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman bin Abdulaziz who is also the second Deputy Prime Minister and the Defence Minister received a telephone call from Sudan’s Minister of State and Director of the President’s office Taha Osman Al-Hussein yesterday during which he confirmed that Sudan has decided to expel the Iranian ambassador and his entire mission from Sudan and recall the Sudanese ambassador from Iran. Al-Hussein later told Asharq Al-Awsat that Sudan “considers the security of the country in which the two holy mosques are located a red line and does not accept any violation of it from any party”.

The Arab League has decided to hold a meeting on Sunday with its council in which foreign ministers will participate at the request of Saudi Arabia to condemn the attacks on its embassy and consulate.

For its part, the US Department of State condemned the attacks on Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran. A spokesman for the White House said that the administration aims to impose sanctions on Iran when financial experts decide that those financial sanctions will have the greatest impact. The sanctions are a response to Iran’s testing of ballistic missiles.

In light of increasing criticism of Iran, its UN envoy sent a letter to the Secretary General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon which expressed his country’s regret for the attacks which affected the Saudi diplomatic missions and vowed that they would not be repeated.