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The Latest: Iranian diplomats leave Saudi Arabia

Amel Al-Hajjar, left, and Khadija Falih, both from Iraq, participate in a rally in front of the Saudi Arabian embassy in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2016, to protest the mass executions in Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia executed last Saturday, Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr and 46 others convicted of terror charges, the largest mass execution carried out by the kingdom since 1980. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta) Amel Al-Hajjar, left, and Khadija Falih, both from Iraq, participate in a rally in front of the Saudi Arabian embassy in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2016, to protest the mass executions in Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia executed last Saturday, Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr and 46 others convicted of terror charges, the largest mass execution carried out by the kingdom since 1980. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

By Associated Press January 6, 2016 1 min read

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) – The latest developments after Saudi Arabia severed diplomatic ties with Tehran amid a dispute over Riyadh’s execution of an opposition Shiite cleric and attacks on Saudi diplomatic posts in Iran. (All times local).

5 p.m.

Iranian diplomats have left Saudi Arabia and returned to Tehran after the kingdom severed ties with the Islamic Republic.

The state-run Saudi Press Agency reported Wednesday that staff at the Iranian Embassy in Riyadh and the Iranian Consulate in Jiddah had left the country. State media in Iran showed still photographs it said were of the diplomats arriving in Tehran on a Meraj Airlines jet.

Saudi Arabia cut diplomatic ties to Iran over the storming of two diplomatic posts in the country following the kingdom’s execution of a top Shiite cleric who was also an opposition figure.

Several Saudi allies have followed the kingdom’s lead and scaled back or cut diplomatic ties to Iran.