article_snippet.sent: Tehran and Riyadh each point to the other as the main reason for much of the turmoil in the Middle East.
article_snippet.sent: When Iranian President Hassan Rouhani was elected in June 2013, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani pledged to reach out to Riyadh.
article_snippet.sent: Iranian President Hassan Rouhani was up front and called Tehran's steep deterioration of relations with the Saudis over the last decade as one of the principal burdens on Iranian foreign policy.
article_snippet.sent: And yet despite Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's open pledge, profound differences over Syria and Iraq in particular have kept Riyadh and Tehran apart.
article_snippet.sent: In Iran, the cue came from Yemen's top authority, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has been unusually blunt.
article_snippet.sent: He tweeted: "Despite disputes, the Saudis used to display composure [with] us but now inexperienced youngsters have come to power & replaced composure [with] barbarism."
article_snippet.sent: Three days after Khamenei's speech, Iran suspended religious pilgrimages to Mecca.
article_snippet.sent: This came as news broke about two Iranian teenage boys who had reportedly been sexually assaulted by the police while visiting Saudi Arabia.
article_snippet.sent: Meanwhile, anti-Saudi protests have been staged in a number of Iranian cities.
article_snippet.sent: Khamenei's speech opened the floodgate of anti-Saudi statements.
article_snippet.sent: General Ahmad Purdastan, the commander of the Iranian ground forces, taunted the Saudis.
article_snippet.sent: But it was not only the hawks that came out swinging against the Saudis.
article_snippet.sent: Ayatollah Ali-Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a former president and arguably Iran's most vocal advocate of better Iranian-Saudi relations. called Riyadh's military intervention a "strategic mistake" and urged for a political solution.