A number of websites affiliated with Iran's Foreign Ministry were attacked by a group of hackers, Iran's Tasnim news agency reported on Thursday putting blame on Saudi Arabia.

A background check has revealed that the attackers have been seemingly paid for by Riyadh to hack into the websites linked to the Iranian Foreign Ministry, including web pages of embassies and cultural attaché offices, according to the report.

The attacks follow an earlier cyber strike against the Statistics Center of Iran on May 24 which, Iran's Cyber Police said, was traced back to IP addresses in three Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia, Tasnim said.

Iran has submitted a report regarding the IPs and exact locations of the hackers to Saudi Arabia via the Interpol to take action and arrest the criminals, Iran's Cyber Police was quoted as saying.

The "model of attack and the technical performance" in the recent strike on Iran's Foreign Ministry websites leaves no doubt that the hackers are being supported by the Saudi government, Tasnim said quoting a cyber expert as saying.

Following the attacks on Statistics Center, Iranian hackers reportedly launched retaliatory attacks on a number of Saudi websites, including the Kingdom's statistics center, the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs, King Abdulaziz University and tens of other websites.

Iran and Saudi Arabia are currently locked in a diplomatic row over Iraq, Syria and Yemen issues, as well as the Sunni-majority Riyadh's execution of a prominent Shiite cleric, along with 46 others over terror charges in January.

The executions sent a large number of Iranians to the streets, and some of them stormed the Saudi diplomatic missions in capital Tehran and the northeastern city of Mashhad.

Later, Riyadh cut its diplomatic ties with Tehran over the attacks, and many of Persian Gulf countries either followed suit or downgraded their relations with Iran. Endit

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