Arab foreign ministers emphasised their countries’ full solidarity with Saudi Arabia and called on the international community to take necessary measures to compel Tehran to respect the principle of good neighbourliness during an emergency meeting in Cairo yesterday which was held in response to an invitation from Riyadh to discuss the Iranian attacks on its diplomatic missions in Tehran and Mashhad.

The council entrusted the Secretary General of the Arab League Nabil El-Araby to communicate with the foreign ministers of the UAE, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Egypt in order to follow the developments of the crisis with Iran, ways to address its intervention in the internal affairs of Arab countries and to raise the results of that with the Secretary General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon and the Security Council.

The ministerial council condemned the attacks on the Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran during its closing statement and held Tehran responsible for them. It also called on Iran to abide by international conventions in this regard.

The closing statement also condemned Iranian intervention in the matters of Yemen and Syria and its continued occupation of three islands belonging to the United Arab Emirates. It also condemned Iran for continuing to spread sectarian strife and supporting terrorist organisations.

The Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir warned Iran that additional steps would be taken if Iran did not stop its absurd practices during the next two months. He added that “Iran is supporting sectarianism and terrorism in the Arab world, has been supporting extremism and trying to recruit people in the region to harm it and has been sending weapons to spread destruction and the use of violence”.