Saudi execution of Shiite leader stokes tensions

Saudi executions are usually carried out by beheading with a sword.

Angry over the execution of Shiite cleric Sheik Nimr al-Nimr by Saudi Arabia, protesters gathered at the Saudi embassy in Tehran Saturday night, according to Iran’s semi-official news agency, ISNA. Nimr had often called for better protection for the country’s Shiite minority.

Late last month, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Hossein Jaber Ansari told a weekly press conference that his country is fully ready for changes in its relations with Saudi Arabia on regional issues.

“What the Saudi Arabian authorities have said so far indicates they regard these executions as taken to preserve security”. Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, an establishment cleric in largely Shia rival Iran, said repercussions against the Sunni Saudi rulers would “wipe them from the pages of history”.

In Beirut, Shi’ite shopkeeper Abu Ali Dimashq said he hoped Nimr’s death would prove “a victory against the Al Saud family, because this is the beginning of their end, God willing”.

Sheikh Nimr was a vocal critic of the monarchy.

Condemnation for the killing went far beyond the Middle East too, with British and European Union politicians also criticizing the execution. “Together with its European Union partners, Germany is working to abolish and ban the death penalty worldwide”.

He said on his certified Facebook account that muffling voices and executing opponents “would lead to nothing but more destruction”, expressing “intense shock” upon hearing the news of the execution. The mayhem broke out at a rally set off by Riyadh’s execution of a prominent Shiite cleric.

Unconfirmed reports say that Saudi Arabia has expelled a number of Iranian diplomats following the incidents in Tehran. “Saudi will not pass through this maelstrom”. He was sentenced to death on charges of inciting hatred and disobedience to the Saudi king in 2014, two years after his arrest during anti-government protests. The powerful Asaib Ahl-Haq asked the government in Baghdad to “reconsider the benefit of having a Saudi embassy in Iraq, with a suspicious ambassador and goals”. The kingdom closed the embassy in 1990, after Saddam Hussein ordered an invasion of Kuwait. Of those executed, 45 were Saudi citizens, one was from Chad and another was from Egypt.

Islamic State controls large parts of Iraq and neighboring Syria and claimed several deadly attacks inside Saudi Arabia previous year.

The predominately Shiite Iran has bashed Riyadh, accusing the Kingdom of supporting terrorism and executing its opponents.

Reprieve said in a statement that the Saudi government “is continuing to target those who have called for domestic reform in the kingdom”.

“The execution of a figure like Sheikh al-Nimr, who had no means to follow his political and religious goals but through speaking out, merely shows the extent of irresponsibility and imprudence”. Al-Nimr was in his 50s.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Aabadi Tweeted Saturday night that he was “shocked and saddened” by al-Nimr’s execution, adding that, “peaceful opposition is a fundamental right”.

Saudi Shiite women hold placards bearing portraits of prominent Shiite Muslim cleric Nimr al-Nimr during a protest in the eastern coastal city of Qatif against his execution by Saudi authorities, on January 2, 2016.

Lebanon’s Shi’ite Hezbollah condemned the execution of a prominent Shi’ite cleric in Saudi Arabia on Saturday, calling it an “assassination” and blaming it on the United States and its allies’ support for Riyadh.

In Hawaii, where President Barack Obama is on vacation with his family, White House deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes said the administration has urged the Saudis to show restraint regarding respect for human rights.