Joining Riyadh and its Sunni Arab allies in taking diplomatic action, Kuwait said it was withdrawing its envoy over a weekend attack on the Saudi embassy in Tehran.
Kuwait's move came after the UN Security Council strongly condemned the attack by protesters angry over Saudi Arabia's execution of a prominent Shiite cleric.
Tensions between Saudi Arabia, the main Sunni power, and Shiite-dominated Iran erupted this week into a full-blown diplomatic crisis, sparking widespread worries of regional instability.
Iran on Tuesday lashed out again at Saudi Arabia over Saturday's execution, with President Hassan Rouhani accusing Riyadh of seeking to "cover its crime" by severing ties.
"One does not respond to criticism by cutting off heads," Rouhani said, referring to the usual Saudi practice of carrying out executions with beheading by the sword.
Washington and other Western powers have called for calm amid fears the dispute could raise sectarian tensions across the Middle East and derail efforts to resolve conflicts from Syria to Yemen.
The Security Council joined those calls late on Monday, issuing a statement urging all sides to "take steps to reduce tensions in the region".
The statement by the 15-member council condemned "in the strongest terms" the attacks which saw protesters firebomb the Saudi embassy in Tehran and its consulate in Iran's second-biggest city Mashhad.
But the council made no mention of the event that set off the crisis -- Saudi Arabia's execution of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, a cleric and activist whose death sparked widespread Shiite protests.
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