State authorities of Iran were not complicit in organizing an attack on the Saudi embassy in Tehran, Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Hossein Zolfaqari said Thursday.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) On January 2, Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia announced the execution ofprominent Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr. Following the news, the Saudi diplomatic mission inthe capital ofIran, the regions main Shiite power, was stormed byprotesters.
"People who committed this attack are an organized group which has been active inKaraj and Tehran formore than10 years," Zolfaqari said, asquoted bythe IRNA news agency.
According tothe official, the Iranian authorities, aswell ascivil society activists "did not participate inthe creation ofthis group."
Zolfaqari added that an interior ministry report onthe January 2 attack had been presented toPresident Hassan Rouhani two days ago and was ready tobe submitted toSupreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Saudi Arabia formally severed diplomatic ties withIran afterthe attacks onthe diplomatic mission inTehran and Mashhad, and was joined byBahrain, Sudan and Djibouti, while the United Arab Emirates downgraded its diplomatic relations withIran and Kuwait recalled its ambassador.