TEHRAN, Iran – The execution of a Shiite cleric in Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia has laid bare the divisions now gripping the Middle East, as protesters set fire Sunday to the kingdom’s embassy in Tehran and demonstrators took to the streets from Bahrain to Pakistan.
The mass execution of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr along with 46 others, the largest carried out by Saudi Arabia in three and a half decades, illustrates the kingdom’s new aggressiveness under King Salman.
Under his reign, Saudi Arabia has led a coalition fighting Shiite rebels in Yemen and staunchly opposed regional Shiite power Iran, even as Tehran struck a nuclear deal with world powers.
READ MORE: Protesters enter, damage Saudi embassy in Iran to protest execution
Iran’s top leader warned Saudi Arabia on Sunday of “divine revenge” over al-Nimr’s death, while Riyadh accused Tehran of supporting terrorism in a war of words that threatened to escalate even as the U.S. and the European Union sought to calm the region.
Al-Nimr was a central figure in Arab Spring-inspired protests by Saudi Arabia’s Shiite minority until his arrest in 2012. He was convicted of terrorism charges but denied advocating violence.
On Saturday, Saudi Arabia put al-Nimr and three other Shiite dissidents to death, along with a number of al-Qaida militants. Al-Nimr’s execution drew protests from Shiites across the world, who backed his call for reform and wider political freedom for their sect.
While the split between Sunnis and Shiites dates back to the early days of Islam and disagreements over the successor to Prophet Muhammad, those divisions have only grown as they intertwine with regional politics today, with both Iran and Saudi Arabia vying to be the Mideast’s top power.
Iranian security stand guard to protect Saudi Arabia\’s embassy in Tehran, Iran, while a group of demonstrators gathered to protest execution of a Shiite cleric in Saudi Arabia, Sunday, Jan. 3, 2016.
Iran accuses Saudi Arabia of supporting terrorism in part because it backs Syrian rebel groups fighting to oust its embattled ally, President Bashar Assad. Riyadh points to Iran’s backing of the Lebanese Hezbollah and other Shiite militant groups in the region as a sign of its support for terrorism. Iran also has backed Shiite rebels in Yemen known as Houthis.
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, condemned al-Nimr’s execution, saying Sunday the cleric “neither invited people to take up arms nor hatched covert plots. The only thing he did was public criticism.”
Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard said Saudi Arabia’s “medieval act of savagery” would lead to the “downfall” of the country’s monarchy.
Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Ministry said that by condemning the execution, Iran had “revealed its true face represented in support for terrorism.”
In Tehran, a protest outside the Saudi Embassy early Sunday quickly grew violent. Protesters threw stones and gasoline bombs at the embassy, setting part of the building ablaze, according to Gen. Hossein Sajedinia, the country’s top police official, the semi-official Tasnim news agency said.
Forty people were arrested and investigators were pursuing other suspects, Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dowlatabadi said, according to the semi-official ISNA news agency.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani condemned Saudi Arabia’s execution of al-Nimr, but also branded those who attacked the Saudi Embassy as “extremists.”
“It is unjustifiable,” he said in a statement.
Hundreds of protesters later demonstrated in front of the embassy and in a central Tehran square. Street signs near the embassy were replaced with ones bearing the slain sheikh’s name.
Comments