Saudi Arabia severs diplomatic ties with Iran in execution row

Forty people were arrested over the embassy attack, Iranian authorities said.

On Sunday, Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani condemned Nimr’s killing but said the attack on the Saudi embassy was “totally unjustifiable”. His execution drew condemnation from Shias across the region.

Lebanon’s Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah addresses his supporters via a screen during a memorial service to mourn the death of Sheikh Mohammad Khatoun, who was a member of Hezbollah Central Council, and to condemn the execution of Sheikh al-Nimr.

The ayatollah added: “This oppressed cleric did not encourage people to join an armed movement, nor did he engage in secret plotting, and he only voiced public criticism… based on religious fervour”.

The Guard promised “harsh revenge” against the Saudi royals for the execution, according to Reuters.

Iran officials argued that “peaceful opposition is a fundamental right”. The mass-execution one of the largest in Saudi Arabia in decades.

“This…blood will stain the collar of the House of Saud and wipe them from the pages of history”, Khatami was quoted as saying on January 2. “All Iranian officials are fully committed to confront these illegal acts”, he said in a tweet.

A war of words has broken out between Iran and Saudi Arabia after Riyadh announced that Shia religious figure Nimr al-Nimr was among 47 men it had executed on terrorism charges.

The Twitter account of Supreme Leader Khamenei paid tribute to Nimr, calling him a “martyr”.

Iraq’s top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, described the executions as an “unjust aggression”.

He wrote on his verified 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.

Several clerics and protesters in Iraq have also called for the closure of the Saudi embassy and said that the envoy should be expelled over Nimr’s execution.

Nimr, the most vocal critic of the dynasty among the Shi’ite minority, had come to be seen as a leader of the sect’s younger activists, who had exhausted of the failure of older, more measured leaders to achieve equality with Sunnis. He called on leaders in the region to prevent an escalation of sectarian tensions.

Sheikh Nimr’s execution sparked anger in Shia communities across the region, with protests in Saudi’s Eastern Province as well as in Iran, Bahrain among other countries. According to Reprieve, the list of people executed did not include the names of a number of people sentenced to death as children who are still facing execution-including Ali al Nimr, Sheikh Nimr’s nephew; Dawoud al Marhoon; and Abdullah al Zaher, who were also sentenced to death over their alleged involvement in the 2012 anti-government protests, despite having been aged 17, 17, and 15 respectively at the time.

In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said the USA condemned the embassy attack and called on all sides “to avoid any actions that would further heighten tensions in the region”.

Some hurled rocks at police, who fired tear gas and wielded batons in return, a senior police officer speaking on condition of anonymity told AFP.

He said Riyadh would not allow the Islamic Republic to undermine the Sunni kingdom’s security.

Authorities shot al-Nimr in the leg during the arrest, and his family said that he had been denied proper treatment for his wounds during his imprisonment – much of which Amnesty said was spent in solitary confinement.

“It’s rather more to do with Saudi Arabia being a country that does not tolerate political dissent”, Ms Kinninmont said.