Saudi Arabia would "collapse" in the coming years, if it kept pursuing its sectarian policies in the region, the deputy head of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps said on Thursday.
Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Sudan and Djibouti broke off ties with Iran this week, the UAE downgraded its relations and Kuwait and Qatar recalled their ambassadors after the Saudi Embassy in Tehran was stormed by protesters.
Tensions between Tehran and Riyadh have mounted since Saudi Arabia on Saturday executed top Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, an opponent of the ruling dynasty who demanded greater rights for Saudi Arabia's marginalized Shia minority.
"The policies of the Saudi regime will have a domino effect and they will be buried under the avalanche they have created," the IRGC's second-in-command, Brigadier General Hossein Salami, was quoted as saying by Fars News Agency.
"If the Saudis do not correct their path, their regime will collapse in the coming years."
Salami compared Saudi policies with those of Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi dictator overthrown by US forces in 2003.
"The path the Saudi regime is taking is like the one Saddam took in the 1980s and 90s. He started a war with Iran, executed prominent clerics and top officials, suppressed dissidents and ended up having that miserable fate," he said.
Saddam was hanged in 2006 after being convicted of crimes against humanity.
Salami called Riyadh's decision to sever relations with Iran "irrational and hateful" and said the violence in Iraq and Syria were "the direct results of Saudi's sectarian policies in the region."
