LA TIMES
Saudi Arabia cuts off relations with Iran, recalls diplomats in dispute over execution
by Nabih Bulos, Amro Hassan and Ramin Mostaghim
January 3, 2016

Saudi Arabia cut off diplomatic relations with Iran on Sunday and recalled its diplomats from Tehran as the two regional rivals fought a war of words over the Saudi kingdom’s execution of a prominent Shiite cleric. Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Adel Jubair, in a televised address on state television, declared “the dissolution of [Saudi Arabia’s] relations with Iran,” adding that the Iranian government had been given 48 hours to shut down its offices and remove all its diplomats from the country. Saudi Arabian broadcaster Al-Arabiya reported that members of the Saudi diplomatic mission to Iran had landed in Dubai late Sunday. Earlier in the day, hundreds of protesters had gathered outside the Saudi Embassy in Tehran, denouncing the death of Sheik Nimr al-Nimr and angrily chanting slogans urging the closure of the “Wahhabi embassy,” referring to Saudi Arabia’s embrace of the hard-line form of Sunni Islam called Wahhabism. READ MORE