The new year seems to have opened yet another chapter on Middle Eastern instability, as Saudi Arabia executed 47 prisoners including popular Saudi Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr, whom it accused of "foreign meddling." The beheadings opened a chasm with Iran on one side and most of the Arab Gulf states on the other.

After the Jan. 2 executions, Iranian protesters stormed the Saudi Embassy annex in Tehran. Though Tehran publicly denounced the raid, Saudi Arabia severed diplomatic ties with Iran the next day. Iran responded in kind, expelling Saudi diplomats.

Diplomatic ties were the only binds left between the countries, following the crisis in Syria, Yemen and Iraq, which took relations to their worst days. Now there are no ties left between Iran and Saudi Arabia, as well as Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates downgraded its diplomatic representation in Iran to charge d’affaires.

However, “In practice, we had no real diplomatic relations in recent years,” an Iranian diplomat told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity. The diplomat elaborated on Riyadh officials' decision to suspend diplomatic relations with Iran, saying, “Iran is not their problem. [Iran is just] an excuse to justify their iron-fist policies in the region since 2011.”