Hundreds of people
demonstrated on Saturday outside the Saudi embassy in Tehran to protest against
alleged sexual harassment against Iranian youths by Saudi police.Official IRNA
news agency said about 500 people gathered outside the embassy in northeastern
Tehran in a protest that had not been authorised by the authorities.
Media reported that two
Iranian teenagers who had gone on pilgrimage to holy sites in Saudi Arabia had
been sexually harassed by police at the Red Sea airport of Jeddah, as they
prepared to return home.
The alleged incident
occurred several days ago, media said without giving an exact date.
State television said Iran
summoned the Saudi charge d’affaires to lodge an official complaint and
demanded that the case be taken to the courts.
Deputy Foreign Minister
Hassan Ghashghavi told the state broadcaster that the two Saudi police had been
arrested.
Outside the Saudi embassy,
protesters chanted slogans hostile to the Sunni-ruled Gulf kingdom and demanded
that authorities in Shiite majority Iran shut the diplomatic mission.
“Shame on you. Get off our
soil,” the protesters chanted as security forces ringed the embassy.
The protesters also
demanded that the Saudi police involved in the alleged sexual harassment be
punished.
Ties between Iran and Saudi
Arabia are tense and this incident is expected to further strain relations
between the two Middle East powers, who are already divided over the conflict
in Syria.
Relations have worsened
since a Saudi-led coalition launched last month an air campaign against Shi’ite
rebels in Yemen, which Riyadh says are backed by Iran.
Tehran, which denies arming
the Huthi rebels, has denounced the Saudi-led campaign.
On Wednesday Saudi
authorities said they had prevented a plane carrying 260 Iranian pilgrims from
landing in the kingdom, saying the airline operators had not applied for a
permit to enter Saudi Arabia.
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