Report: Iran suspends talks with Saudi after mass execution

By AMIR VAHDAT
Associated Press

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — An Iranian news website close to the country’s leadership says Iran has decided to temporarily suspend its secret Iraqi-brokered talks aimed at defusing yearslong tensions with regional rival Saudi Arabia. The Sunday report came a day after Saudi Arabia carried out its largest known mass execution in its modern history. The kingdom put to death 81 people convicted of crimes ranging from killings to belonging to militant groups, a group that activists believe included over three dozen Shiites. Saudi Arabia’s executions of Shiites have stirred regional unrest in the past. Iran, the largest Shiite Muslim country in the world, and Sunni powerhouse Saudi Arabia severed diplomatic ties in 2016 after Saudi Arabia executed a prominent Shiite cleric.