Saudi Arabia Protests Iran

Morteza Mohseni, Rooz Online:

The Saudi government has complained about the disregard for protocol by president Ahmadinejad of Iran during his recent trip to the Kingdom to attend a meeting of the Islamic Conference Organization. The letter of protest was submitted by the Saudi Foreign Ministry to the Iranian embassy in Riyadh. The letter states that King Abdullah, the ruler of Saudi Arabia viewed diplomatic protocol to portray political respect, which was not observed by the president of Iran. READ MORE

It is also reported that the Saudi officials implicitly told their Iranian counterparts that Iranian officials would benefit from conferring with Hashemi Rafsanjani about diplomatic protocol. While no specifics are known, it is possible that Saudi displeasure is about Ahmadinejad’s unplanned and unexpected trip to Saudi Arabia which was not arranged through the normal diplomatic channels, as is the case when the head of a government decides to visit a country.

Ahmadinejad shortened his stay in the kingdom by canceling his planned trip to Medina after the crash of a military aircraft in Tehran that killed over a 100 people. Officials have noted however that on his return, he did not engage in any activity related to the air crash. Observers point out that another cause for Saudi grievance could possibly be his behavior at the Islamic Conference Organization meeting, as described by the Minister of Science last week in which Ahmadinejad implied that there could have been a secret agenda at the conference to recognize Israel or stating that the Saudi King was overzealous to meet, stay and talk with Ahmadinejad.