Saudi Arabia has announced it is severing diplomatic ties with Iran after Saturday’s attack on its embassy in Tehran during protests against executions in the kingdom.

Iranian diplomatic mission was asked to leave the kingdom within 48 hours as Saudis evacuate embassy staff from Tehran, according to Al Jazeera.

Saudi Arabia decided to execute Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr on Saturday along with 46 others accused of terrorism and participation in al-Qaida terrorist group outraging Iran, Iraq and Lebanon warning of “divine revenge”.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei condemned the execution stating on his website that al-Nimr “neither invited people to take up arms nor hatched covert plots. The only thing he did was public criticism.”

Hundreds of al-Nimr’s supporters protested in his hometown of al-Qatif in eastern Saudi Arabia, with police firing tear gas and bird shot.

“The diplomatic rupture between Saudi Arabia and Iran could easily spiral out of control,” said Fawaz Gerges, chair of contemporary Middle Eastern studies at the London School of Economics, as CNN reports.

Furthermore, growing tension between Saudi Arabia and Iran has caused oil prices to jump in the first trading session of 2016 which is an early sign of how the unstable political situation in the Middle East could complicate the oil prices in 2016.