Naz Street in Tehran Renamed After Martyr Sheikh Nimr Baqr al-Nimr

On Tuesday, September 2, the Tehran City Council approved the renaming of Naz Street in District 1 of Tehran to 'Martyr Sheikh Nimr Baqr al-Nimr'. According to Mehr News Agency, Mojtaba Shakri, head of the Tehran City Council's Naming Commission, stated regarding the renaming of Naz Street to Sheikh Nimr: 'Due to the proximity of this street to the Saudi embassy and considering the restrictions that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had regarding the naming of the main street, we concluded that the street above this embassy should be named after him.' Members of the Tehran City Council voted on January 3 of last year to change the name of Bustan Street, which leads to the Saudi embassy, to Sheikh Nimr Street, and on the same day, some protesters against the execution of this Shia cleric replaced the sign of Bustan Street with one bearing the name Sheikh Nimr. Concurrently with this action, the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs protested this name change and formally requested the Tehran Municipality to revert the street name to its previous designation. Mojtaba Shakri, a member of the Tehran City Council, also responded that the name of this street has not yet been officially changed and that the City Council in accordance with 'procedure' consults with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs regarding the naming of streets after foreign and international figures. The execution of Sheikh Nimr, a Shia cleric from Saudi Arabia, and the subsequent attacks on Saudi diplomatic missions in Tehran and Mashhad led to the severing of diplomatic relations between the two countries in January of last year. The Iranian judiciary prosecuted several attackers following this incident. During the trial of 21 defendants in the attack on the Saudi embassy on July 19, some defendants stated that they were informed about the gathering in front of the Saudi embassy through Telegram channels 'affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards'. The charges against the 21 defendants in this case include 'participation in the intentional destruction of Saudi embassy property' or 'disturbing public order through riots and illegal gatherings', or both charges. Saudi Arabia believes that attacks on foreign embassies in Iran are organized by the government. Iran has the highest record of assaults on embassies and diplomatic missions among 194 countries, which are protected under the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. Attacks on the embassies of Egypt, Morocco, the United States, Denmark, the United Kingdom, and Saudi Arabia are among these incidents.