MANAMA, Bahrain -- A bomb exploded in a Saudi Arabian Airlines office in Kuwait and Iran delivered an angry rebuke to the Saudi government Wednesday, one day after Riyadh formally severed diplomatic relations with Tehran.
The home-made bomb exploded in the Saudi airlines office in downtown Kuwait city at 4:30 p.m., slightly injuring a building guard, damaging the office and shattering windows in surrounding structures, police and the state-run Kuwait News Agency said.
The news agency said the device was placed on a sidewalk by the office and was timed to explode when the office was closed for evening prayers. No one immediately claimed responsibility.
The attack came a day after Saudi Arabia severed diplomatic relations with Iran, citing 'deliberate attacks against (Saudi Arabia's) basic interests.' Iranian gunboats had attacked a Saudi oil tanker in the Persian Gulf two days before the diplomatic break.
Gulf diplomats said Kuwait and Bahrain, two other moderate Arab nations with deep concerns about Iranian militancy, were likely to follow Saudi Arabia's leadership in severing ties with Tehran.
A Saudi memorandum handed to Iran's charge d'affaires in Riyadh Tuesday accused Iran of violating 'the principles of good neighborliness and mutual respect' and threatening merchant ships entering and leaving Saudi ports 'with acts of terrorism and sabotage.'
Diplomats said the Saudi move also was a clear message to Washington that its recent purchase of ballistic missiles from China was to thwart any aggression from Iran and not to threaten Israel.
Iran responded to the Saudi action by issuing an angry criticism of the Saudi government Wednesday, with Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Morteza Sarmadi claiming Riyadh was 'toeing the U.S. foreign policy (line)' by breaking relations.
'Snapping of ties with Islamic Iran is proof of Saudi subservience to U.S.,' Sarmadi was quoted as saying by Iran's official Islamic Republic News Agency.
'The White House has chosen the Saudi rulers to play a special role in the implementation of its plots for spreading U.S. hegemony in the Persian Gulf,' Sarmadi said according to the IRNA dispatch from Tehran.
Sarmadi also claimed the Saudi action was aimed at diverting Arab world opinion from Saudi Arabia's opposition to the presence of thousands of Iranian pilgrims at this year's annual religious pilgrimage to Mecca, the holiest city among Moslems.
Conservative Saudi Arabia and revolutionary Iran came to the brink of war last year when 400 mostly Iranian pilgrims died in bloody riots in Mecca.
Iran accused the Saudi national guard of opening fire on the pilgrims and killing them in cold blood. Riyadh accused Iran of sending fanatic Revolutionary Guards to thekingdom to disrupt the pilgrimage and gain support for Iranian spiritual leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
After the rioting, Iranians sacked the embassies of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia in Tehran, beating one Saudi diplomat to death. Riyadh condemned the Iranians for not providing its diplomats proper protection.
The rioting worsened Saudi-Iranian relations, which were already strained by the 7 year gulf war between Iran and Iraq. Saudi Arabia supports Iraq in the war.
Saramadi accused Saudi Arabia of bankrolling Iraq's war effort.
'The Saudi regime has virtually borne the whole cost of the Iraqi regime's aggression,' he said.
Iran this year boasted it would send 150,000 pilgrims to Mecca and that they would demonstrate against the United States and Israel.
In the past, Iran has disputed Saudi King Fahd's claim to be custodian of the Moslem holy shrines at Mecca and Medina, saying they should be operated by an international committee of Moslems that would include Iranian participation.
Saudi Arabia earlier had given signals that its relations with Iran were near the breaking point. The Saudis inched toward a trade embargo against Iran in March after Tehran threatened again to disrupt this year's pilgrimages to Mecca and Medina.
Last week Saudi Arabia angrily condemned an Iranian missile attack on a joint Kuwait-Saudi oil installation in the Kuwaiti desert and offered to come to Kuwait's aid if necessary. The offer was seen as a signal the Saudis were willing to go to war with Iran to defend their interests.
