The breaking (or severance) of diplomatic relations is a unilateral act by which one state declares it will no longer conduct official diplomatic intercourse with another. It typically involves recalling the ambassador and mission staff, requesting the closure of the other state's embassy, and ordering its accredited personnel to depart, usually within a short window. The rules governing the orderly wind-down are set out in the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations (1961), notably Article 45, which obliges the receiving state to respect and protect the premises, property, and archives of the departing mission even after relations are broken, and permits the sending state to entrust its interests and those of its nationals to a mutually acceptable third state — the so-called protecting power arrangement.
Severance is distinct from related measures: it is stronger than the recall of an ambassador for consultations or the expulsion of a single diplomat as persona non grata, but weaker than a declaration of war or full rupture of consular and economic ties. States often maintain consular relations, trade, and even backchannels after severance; the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations (1963) treats the two regimes separately.
Motives vary: armed conflict, coups, recognition disputes, support for hostile non-state actors, hostage-taking, or solidarity with an aggrieved third state. Restoration of relations usually requires a joint communiqué and re-accreditation of envoys, sometimes years or decades later.
Key legal consequences include: cessation of diplomatic immunities for departing staff once they leave or after a reasonable period; transfer of mission premises to a protecting power; and continued obligations of the receiving state to safeguard property. Severance does not by itself terminate underlying treaties, abrogate recognition of statehood, or void existing legal claims between the two governments.
Example
In January 2016, Saudi Arabia severed diplomatic relations with Iran after protesters stormed the Saudi embassy in Tehran following the execution of Shia cleric Nimr al-Nimr.