DUBAI ¨C Iran¡¯s foreign minister has complained to the United Nations about Saudi Arabia¡¯s ¡°provocations¡± towards Tehran, as a diplomatic crisis between the region¡¯s two major powers entered its second week.

In a letter to the U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon published by Iranian news agencies on Saturday, Mohammad Javad Zarif said ¡°some people¡± in Riyadh seemed bent on dragging the whole region into crisis.

The two powers, both major oil exporters, have been locked in a diplomatic battle since Saudi Arabia executed Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr on Jan. 2. Iranian protesters then stormed the Saudi embassy in Tehran, prompting Riyadh to sever relations.

Zarif said Iran had ¡°no desire¡± to escalate tensions further, but offered no compromise as he placed the blame for the crisis, and the wider turmoil across the region, squarely on Saudi shoulders.

¡°They (the Saudis) can continue to support extremist terrorists and promote sectarian hatred, or choose the path of good neighborliness and play a constructive role in regional security,¡± state news agency IRNA quoted Zarif¡¯s letter as saying in Farsi.

Zarif said Sunni Saudi Arabia had engaged in a series of ¡°direct provocations¡± towards Shiite Iran, including the execution of Nimr and what he described as ¡°persistent mistreatment¡± of Iranian pilgrims visiting Mecca.

Saudi Arabia says last week¡¯s executions were a domestic matter, and that Iran is the country pursuing sectarian division by casting itself as the champion of Arab Shiites.

Zarif also portrayed Saudi Arabia as a threat to regional and global security in the letter, copies of which were sent to the Organization of Islmic Cooperation and the foreign ministers of several countries.

¡°Most members of al-Qaida, the Taliban, Islamic State and Nusra Front are Saudi citizens or have been brainwashed by demagogues wielding oil money,¡± IRNA quoted him as writing, in an unusually direct allegation.

Saudi Arabia opposes extremist groups: it executed dozens of al-Qaida members last week alongside Nimr, and last month announced an Islamic coalition against terrorism. But the kingdom¡¯s ultra conservative Wahhabi clergy, which views Shiites as heretical, is a cornerstone of Saudi ruling legitimacy.

Riyadh says around 2,500 Saudis have gone to fight in Syria and Iraq, constituting one of the largest groups of foreign fighters, but only a fraction of the total number estimated to be in the tens of thousands.