Saudi Execution of Sheikh Nimr in No Way Justifiable: Iran’s FM

Later on, Sudan took the same move as it expelled the Iranian ambassador to Khartoum and severed all ties.

Instead, “it is Saudi Arabia that will suffer”, he argued, reiterating Tehran’s harsh criticism of Nimr’s killing but condemning the violence by protesters as unjustified actions “beneath the dignity of the Iranian people”.

In his remarks in Tehran with Danish Foreign Minister Kristian Jensen, Rouhani defended those who have reacted angrily to the mass execution. Iran lashed out again at Saudi Arabia for the execution yesterday, with President Hassan Rouhani accusing Riyadh of seeking to “cover its crime” by severing ties.

He added that Canada is particularly concerned that the kingdom’s execution of Sheikh Nimr could “further inflame” sectarian tensions in the Middle East. News of his execution has sparked Shiite protests from Bahrain to Pakistan. That prompted violent protests in Tehran as Shia demonstrators – some suggest with official encouragement – attacked the Saudi embassy. Tensions between Saudi Arabia, the main Sunni power, and Shiite-dominated Iran erupted this week into a full-blown diplomatic crisis, sparking widespread worries of regional instability. The United Arab Emirates downgraded its diplomatic relationship, and Kuwait recalled its ambassador.

“This time is different and it matters because it shows that tensions are escalating and coming to a head in a context where the perception of both Saudi Arabia and Iran is that the United States is intent on an exit from the region”, says James Phillips, a Middle East expert at the Heritage Foundation in Washington.

The supply pressure is expected to rise soon once Iran returns to markets that had been closed to it due to US-championed economic sanctions and Tehran attempts to wrestle back its lost share. Tiny Kuwait is home to both Shiites and Sunnis living in peace and has the most free-wheeling political system among all Gulf nations.

But the ambassador also said that the two nations are “not naturally born enemies”, and that what separated them was Iranian interference, in reference to Iran’s support for organizations in other countries, such as Hezbollah in Lebanon and the administration of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria.

And he compared Riyadh’s “immature reaction” to the attacks with Iran’s “restraint” after 464 Iranian pilgrims died in a stampede at the hajj in Saudi Arabia in September. It is also a fact that the USA has sought to reaffirm its support for Saudi Arabia and other Sunni-led Arab states in the aftermath of the nuclear agreement with Iran.

The UN envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, headed to Riyadh and Tehran to defuse tensions, anxious that the row would undermine growing efforts to resolve that country’s conflict.

In Yemen, where the regional rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran has aggravated the civil war, the Saudi-led military coalition Wednesday carried out some of its heaviest bombing in months on Sanaa, the capital. De Mistura has set a January 25 target date for a fourth round of talks.