New Saudi-Iran Tensions Could Ruin Syria Peace Effort, Says E.U.
The European Union has warned that renewed tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran could derail efforts to find a political end to the crisis in Syria, Reuters reports.
The E.U.’s foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini spoke to Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif on Sunday morning after violent protests broke out in Iran following Riyadh’s execution of a well-known Shiite cleric.
“The international community and the main regional actors are actively working together to support a political solution for the crisis in Syria and to join forces against terrorist groups, and these efforts should not be jeopardized by new instability,” Mogherini said.
Protestors in Iran stormed Saudi Arabia’s embassy Sunday morning, setting the building alight.
In a statement released Sunday afternoon Mogherini said she had spoken with both countries about the E.U.’s concern over the risk of escalating sectarian violence.
Rebel Group Supports Saudi Move to Cut Ties with Iran
The Syrian rebel group Jaish al-Islam on Monday publicly backed Saudi Arabia’s decision to break diplomatic ties with Iran, claiming Tehran’s support of Shiite militias was destabilizing the Middle East and fueling sectarian tensions in Syria, Reuters reports.
Jaish al-Islam, a Sunni rebel group based mainly in the eastern outskirts of Damascus, is part of the new Saudi-backed opposition alliance formed last month in Riyadh set to enter into negotiations with Bashar al-Assad’s government.
Iran, the rebel group said in a statement, is “threatening the security of the region by exporting criminal militias that spread destruction and death and filled with sectarian vengeance.”
The group’s leader, Zahran Alloush, was killed in a government airstrike on December 26.
Iranian-backed militias have been fighting alongside Syrian government troops against mainly Sunni rebel groups backed by Saudi Arabia, other Gulf States and Turkey in the five-year-long conflict, which has steadily increasing sectarian undertones.
Rebel Group Exits Islamist Coalition to Refocus Fight
The Failaq al-Sham rebel group said Sunday it was withdrawing from the Army of Conquest coalition in order to redeploy around Aleppo where forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad have intensified ground assaults in recent months, Reuters reports.
Since Moscow military intervened in Syria in September 2015, government troops and allied militias, with the help of Russian air support, have made advances in the province of Aleppo, pushing closer to a major north-south highway currently under rebel control.
The Army of Conquest, an alliance of Islamist factions including the al-Qaida-linked al-Nusra Front and Ahrar al-Sham, primarily operates in the country’s northwest. The coalition captured nearly all of Idlib province in 2015.
“As enemies from inside and abroad, the regime and its Shabiha (militias), Shiites and Russians concentrate efforts on bringing down the Aleppo region, we are giving priority to supporting revolutionaries in the Aleppo area,” Failaq al-Sham wrote in a statement posted online.
“We therefore announce our exit from the Army of Conquest operations room, which has finished its mission in the battle to conquer Idlib.”
The online statement did not signal there were any tensions within the Army of Conquest coalition.
Recommended Reads:
- Al-Monitor: Besieged Madaya Residents Face Starvation
- Foreign Policy: Saudi-Iran Rift Threatens Syria Diplomacy
- The Guardian: The Aid Workers Who Hold Key to Rebuilding Shattered Syria
- Al-Jazeera: Starvation as a Tool of War in Syria
- Al-Jazeera: Healing on the Syria-Turkey Border
Top image: Smoke rises as Iranian protesters set fire to the Saudi embassy in Tehran, Sunday, Jan. 3, 2016. Protesters upset over the execution of a Shiite cleric in Saudi Arabia set fires to the Saudi embassy in Tehran. (Mohammadreza Nadimi/ISNA via AP)