(Reuters) - Iran has suspended flights to Saudi Arabia for the year-round Umrah Islamic pilgrimage over allegations that Saudi security officers sexually assaulted two Iranian boys, Culture Minister Ali Jannati said on Monday.

The move is likely to deepen tensions between the two regional powers, who are at odds over the war in Yemen.

The teenage boys alleged last week that the officers abused them while conducting a security search at Jeddah airport.

"Until these guilty people are put on trial and punished, the Umrah will be stopped and Iranian flights will be suspended," the Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA) cited Jannati as saying.

http://in.reuters.com/article/2015/04/13/iran-saudi-idINL5N0XA18R20150413

These two regional rivals had better work out their differences.

The Shia vs. Sunni rift cannot just be pushed under the diplomatic carpet.

This is precisely the kind of incident that can and will be exploited by either side, to gain leverage in regional tensions.

The legitimacy of the two Iranian boys' allegations notwithstanding.

I dunno how "REAL" this is, but it's plausible.

However, this is not a sign or mutual accord, no. And the fact they want to talk about it in the press is not good at all.

'not good at all...'

When Saudi Arabia falls into chaos, it will make this now look good.

and remain retrenched behind their compound walls, the worse the conflagration will be.

The Guardian Council might want to suggest that people stay home for awhile--it would hit the Saudis in the wallet, big time. Tour operators would have to slash prices, vendors would not make as much money. It's not like there are not a lot of shi'a shrines in Iran and Iraq that aren't worthy of pilgrimage, after all. Qom, Mashad, Karbala, all in Iran, Nejaf and Kufa in Iraq, and a lot of places in Damascus as well...

The shi'a want control of (or at least some say over) the holy places in Meccah and Medina...if the political infrastructure of Saudi Arabia is ever destabilized, those will be among the first places that are secured by opposing forces.

The Iranians are right. Islam's holiest sites belong to all believers, not just those corrupt, heretical hypocrites.

H of S lucked out twice. Sitting on the biggest pool of black gold in the world, AND having Islam's holiest of holies on their territory.

About 2 years ago Saudi-Arabia demolished the house where Mohammed's wife had lived... to make way for a hotel.

What do you think where ISIS has this doctrine from to destroy places of worship? (Because they are "idols".) Saudi-Arabian Wahabism.