Gunfire kills man in eastern Saudi Arabia

“Riyadh can not evade its “big mistake” of executing a prominent Shiite cleric by cutting diplomatic ties with Iran“, Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian noted. He was charged with inciting violence but denied the allegations. Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, threatened divine retribution for the killing of the cleric, whose only crime, he said, was criticizing the Saudi goverment.

“Iran s history is full of negative interference and hostility in Arab issues, and it is always accompanied by destruction”, he said, accusing Tehran of seeking to “destabilise” the region.

The group, whose leader was killed in a Dec 26 air strike, said Iran was “threatening the security of the region by exporting criminal militias that spread destruction and death and filled with sectarian vengeance”. “They can be the aggrieved party”, says Mohamad Bazzi, a professor at New York University who is writing a book on the Saudi/Iran proxy wars in the region.

According to Michael Stephens, director of the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) in Qatar, the souring of relations between Saudi and Iran puts Doha in a tricky place, given its “intimate” relationship with the kingdom and its business ties to Tehran.

There has been an worldwide outcry over the execution of 47 prisoners including prominent Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, who has been a leading critic of the Riyadh authorities. A number of arrests were reported, and Rouhani says those responsible must be brought to justice.

The execution of 56-year-old al-Nimr has fuelled tensions in the Middle East, with Shiite-majority countries expressing condemnation and the kingdom’s diplomatic missions in Shia-dominated Iran coming under attack. Residents of Qatif have staged angry protests since al-Nimr’s execution on Saturday, denouncing the ruling al-Saud dynasty.

Small protests were also held in Islamabad and Quetta, home to members of Pakistan’s shia minority.

Despite the focus on Nimr, the executions seemed mostly aimed at discouraging jihadism in Saudi Arabia, where dozens have died in the past year in attacks by Sunni militants. “It’s playing a balance-of-power game, where they’re balancing Israel, Turkey, Iran and Saudi Arabia against each other”.

If tensions are to be de-escalated between Iran and Saudi Arabia, it is far more likely to be facilitated by Russian Federation. Four, including Sheikh Nimr, were Shiites accused of participating in violent demonstrations in which demonstrators and police were killed. Be that as it may, this dispute could very easily extend beyond Saudi Arabia and Iran be it in Bahrain (where al-Nimr was also a popular figure) or in Yemen not to mention Iraq and Syria.

Khamenei’s website carried a picture of a Saudi executioner next to notorious IS executioner Jihadi John, with the caption “Any differences?”.

But yesterday Jubeir said those executed had received “fair and transparent” trials and were convicted of carrying out “terrorist operations that led to the deaths of innocents”.