Iranian clerics and religious students abandoned their classes and staged protests inside their seminaries to show solidarity with Bahrain’s mainly Shia opposition and to denounce last month’s Saudi military intervention in the archipelago.
At gatherings in the holy cities of Qom and Mashhad, which were attended by senior clerics and aired live on state television on Wednesday, protesters shouted, “Death to Zionist Saudis†and, “The wicked Bahraini ruler is an enemy to Prophet [Mohammed]â€.
In Tehran, the Iranian parliament, which is dominated by hardliners, released a statement taunting the Saudi army to show its “prowess†against “crimes of the Zionist regime (Israel)†in Palestine.
“Attacking the homes of defenceless Bahraini people … does not show the power of an armed force rather a sign of its weakness and wretchedness,†said the statement, signed by more than 200 lawmakers.
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