Middle East

Saudi Arabia breaks off ties with Iran to hide al-Nimr execution

Iranian demonstrators chant slogans during a protest denouncing the execution of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, in front of the Saudi Embassy in Tehran.

Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister has accused Iran of creating “terrorist cells” inside the Sunni kingdom after cutting diplomatic ties with the Islamic Republic of Iran in trying to hide over the execution of a top Shiite cleric.

Speaking at a press conference on Sunday, Adel al-Jubeir demanded that the Iranian diplomatic mission and related entities leave the country within 48 hours. He said Riyadh would not allow Iran to undermine the Sunni kingdom’s security.

Iran summoned the Saudi ambassador and, just hours later, a mob set fire to the Saudi embassy in Tehran, chanting “Death to Al Saud!” – the ruling family of Saudi Arabia.

The Saudi consulate in the city of Mashhad in northwestern Iran was also attacked by protesters on Saturday, with police intervening after rocks and Molotov cocktails were thrown at the building.

In Tehran, police were forced to use tear gas to disperse the protesters, who made their way into the Saudi embassy and trashed the ground floor of the building, tearing apart Saudi flags, furniture and documents.

The building then caught fire and was engulfed in a huge big blaze, apparently caused by Molotov cocktails thrown by the rioters.

Despite the Saudi decision to cut off diplomatic ties with Iran, Washington has urged diplomatic engagement and called for other countries in the region to be more active in helping to reduce tensions between the two countries.

Iran Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian responded that Saudi Arabia“cannot hide its mistake” of executing a religious figure by moving to cut off diplomatic ties with Iran, the country’s Fars News Agency reported.

Amir-Abdollahian added that none of the Saudi diplomats were harmed during the violent protests on Saturday, stressing that Iran is one of the safest countries for diplomats in the region.

Earlier on Sunday, Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, released a provocative cartoon, which drew a comparison between the executions by Saudi Arabia with those carried out by DAESH terrorists.

Khamenei also issued a statement saying “divine vengeance” would surely befall Saudi Arabia because of its execution of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr and condemning Riyadh for its bombing campaign in Yemen and support for the Bahraini regime.

Al-Nimr, 56, was a firebrand cleric who had spent a decade studying religion in Iran and had been arrested several times by Saudi authorities. He had often called for the secession of Saudi Arabia’s oil-rich Eastern Province, where the majority of the Kingdom’s Shia live, describing the Sunnis living there as foreigners.

Our dignity is more precious than the unity of this land,” he said in a 2009 sermon. And a U.S. diplomat who met him the previous year said he had insisted the Saudi Shia were “entitled to help from a foreign power should they become involved in a conflict.” That foreign power was obviously Iran.

Nimr also called for the downfall of the Saudi royal family, though he urged his followers not to “return bullets with bullets” but to use demonstrations and civil disobedience.

After several previous arrests, Nimr was last detained in July 2012 in disputed circumstances. Saudi authorities said he and his entourage had resisted arrest “and initiated shooting and crashed into one of the security patrols while trying to escape.”

At the time, he was wanted for sedition. He was later charged with inciting sectarian strife and terrorist offenses and “insulting the leaders of the Gulf states.” After a trial criticized by human rights groups, the prosecutor demanded — and in October 2014 fatefully won — the death penalty.

Even so, Toby Matthiesen, senior research fellow in the International Relations of the Middle East at Oxford University, says he is surprised the Saudis went ahead with the execution.

Matthiesen also finds the timing strange. “The [Shia] protest movement in the Eastern Province has stopped;” there was no need to make an example of Nimr.

The question now is whether al Nimr’s execution will inflame existing sectarian tensions. Late Sunday, Saudi Arabia cut diplomatic ties with Iran, and Matthiesen believes that the sheikh’s influence after death may be much greater than it was when he was alive.

Nimr has become a household name amongst Shia Muslims around the world, including also in Iraq, where this will also be used by Shia actors as a way to rally support and denounce Saudi Arabia,” Matthiesen says. His execution “will complicate a whole range of issues, from the Syrian crisis to Yemen.”

The regime in Saudi Arabia has been strongly criticized by human rights organizations.

Saudi Arabia has been compared to Daesh in long time now, especially for their support of terrorist organizations in Iraq, Syria and Yemen.

Hashtags #SueMeSaudi and #SaudiArabiaIsISIS has now many hits every minute, and many want to mark their opposition and to show their distance to the brutal dictator regime in Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia practice Wahhabism ideology, a strictly fundamentalist orientation within Sunni Islam, which in practice is the state religion in the country. It is also ideology direction that has inspired al-Qaida and Daesh.

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