Iranians launch boycott of Saudi businesses
Following Saudi Arabia’s move to cut diplomatic and commercial ties with Iran, some Iranians have joined forces to launch a campaign against Saudi firms in the country — but is the boycott having any impact?
In Iran, a campaign to boycott Saudi products was initiated more than three weeks ago. The campaign, which was launched following a similar initiative in neighboring Iraq, was quickly joined by prominent Iranian actors such as Rambod Javan.
Javan posted the message “Never threaten an Iranian” on the messaging app Telegram. The phrase was famously uttered by Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif to European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini at a tense moment during the nuclear negotiations in Austria last summer.
The boycott campaign follows Saudi Arabia’s Jan. 3 decision to cut diplomatic and commercial ties with Iran. The rupture was triggered by the attacks on Saudi diplomatic facilities in Iran after Riyadh executed Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr Jan. 2.
Mehrdad Mahdavi, a student at Tehran University and one of the organizers of the boycott, told Al-Monitor, “This is a student movement that has nothing to do with the government. We are different from the extremists who attacked the Saudi Embassy. Such actions are not civil. We are in favor of civil behavior and peaceful protests.”
