Saudi Arabia orders five Iranian diplomats to leave country

Saudi Arabia has declared five Iranian diplomats persona non grata, saying they must leave the kingdom in the next 24 hours.

The diplomats are the Iranian Embassy’s military attache, the assistant military attache, and three other staff members, according to a statement from the Saudi Foreign Ministry.

The Saudi government pointed to Iran’s “continued attacks” as the reason, which they said will lead to “further escalation” and have “serious consequences” for Saudi-Iranian relations.

Saudi Arabia is now the second Gulf country to remove some of Iran’s diplomats in the past week.

On Wednesday, Qatar removed the Iranian Embassy’s military attache, security attache, and two other staffers from the country.

That decision came shortly after Iran launched an attack on Qatari liquified natural gas facilities, in what was a serious escalation in the war. The attack was prompted by an Israeli strike on the South Pars gas field, which is shared by