According to Iranian news reports, both on television and online, the people responsible for the attack on the Saudi Arabian embassy in Tehran on Sunday, January 3, were angry and frustrated at the news that Sheikh al-Nimr had been executed in Saudi Arabia the day before. It is generally thought that these people allowed their emotions to take over, culminating in them spontaneously attacking the embassy, as well as the Saudi consulate in Mashhad. According to reports, protesters also clashed with security forces, who failed to stop them from entering and vandalizing the buildings. But this version of events, particularly on social media, is being challenged.
“We took all the necessary precautions and we increased our numbers, said police spokesperson Saeed Montazer Almahdi on Monday, January 4. “But sometimes you can’t just lash out at people. That has to be the final resort.”
Some people claim that the police never had any real intentions of stopping demonstrators from entering the embassy. They also strongly contest the idea that the police refrained from using violence against those storming the building, and have posted photographs of police physically assaulting protesters in 2009 after that year’s presidential election as evidence. Next to the photos, in bold, there is the sentence: “Sometimes you can’t simply lash out at people.”
We talked to Ahmad Shohani, member of parliament for Ilam, which is situated near the Iraqi border, about recent events. Shohani also sits on the parliamentary security and foreign policy committee.
Some people believe the attack on the embassy was pre-meditated. What are your thoughts on this?
What happened at the Saudi embassy wasn’t pre-meditated. The people were emotional after the execution of Al-Nimr, a Shiite cleric, and so certain individuals decided to take a stand, which the government confronted. This could’ve happened in any country. Of course, I don’t think this was the right thing to do. Every embassy deserves respect and privacy. But what’s also important is that Saudi Arabia didn’t react in the right way.
On the one hand, the execution wasn’t the right thing to do. But on the other hand, what the protesters did wasn’t right either. But the worst was what Saudi Arabia and certain other countries did: severing ties with Iran won’t help Saudi Arabia. Therefore, everything that’s happened is wrong and will only cause harm to the Islamic community.
Why didn’t security forces stop the protesters from storming the embassy?
Your concerns are valid. Security forces should have intervened and should have stopped them. I don’t know how many people there were. It’s possible there weren’t enough policemen in place. Although I don’t know what happened, I do know that the government isn’t happy about the incident and that if the security forces didn’t act appropriately, they’ve committed negligence.
We need to respect the boundaries of embassies. As you know, we have done this with embassies ever since the revolution. If we didn’t, we’d only risk the same happening to our embassies in whatever country is involved. As I said before, Saudi Arabia didn’t react in the right way. Protesters always cause problems for us, but Saudi Arabia has caused the biggest issue here.
You said that Iran has respected the embassies of different countries from 1979 onwards. However, since the revolution, both the US and British embassies have been attacked. What do you say to that?
The situation with the US embassy was different. We all know that. The situation was different at the time. But as far as the British and Saudi Arabian embassies are concerned, we really didn’t want these things to happen. You’re right to point out the fact about the security forces though. Perhaps they simply couldn’t get there in time. But in terms of what’s happened in Saudi Arabia, the fact that our people are Shiite, there was the Hajj incident just a few months ago and Saudi’s intervention in Yemen... the Iranian people are justifiably angry at Saudi Arabia. The police should have anticipated this and should have been ready. But I repeat what I said earlier: the government shouldn’t be blamed for this because, as you know, the government doesn’t have total control over security forces.
A police spokesperson said the security forces shouldn’t lash out at people. But they have attacked protesters in the past.
They should never lash out at people. This time, they could’ve controlled the crowd. People were gathering around the embassy and asking questions. That was ok but they shouldn’t have let them enter the embassy. That was wrong and everybody knows it is.
What do you think will happen to relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia?
At this point, the Saudis need to control the situation. Other countries should do the same. I think Iran and Saudi Arabia are the two most important Islamic countries in the region. We’ve got common interests in the area as well. Our relations need to improve and these sort of things need to be resolved. When we’ve put this difficult time behind us, we can manage the relationship.
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