Iranian protesters stormed the Saudi Embassy in Tehran early on Sunday morning as Shi’ite Muslim Iran reacted with fury to Saudi Arabia’s execution of a prominent Shi’ite cleric.
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Some protesters entered the building but were dispersed by police, ISNA reports, citing Iran’s top police official; the agency also reports that some arrests were made.
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Scores of Shias marched through the Qatif district of Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province in protest at the execution of cleric Nimr al-Nimra, an eyewitness said.
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The death sentence was carried out despite global appeals for clemency and repeated warnings from the kingdom’s archenemy in the region, Iran, that there would be consequences if the popular cleric were killed.
Kirby said the U.S.is particularly concerned that the execution of a prominent Shiite cleric and political activist risks making sectarian tensions worse at a time when they urgently need to be reduced. He later said police had removed the protesters from the building and arrested some of them, saying the situation had been “defused”.
Saudi Arabia carried out more than 150 executions last year, the highest figure recorded by human rights groups for 20 years.
Some were beheaded with a sword while others were executed by firing squad, said interior ministry spokesman Mansur al-Turki.
Although most of the 47 men killed in the kingdom’s biggest mass execution for decades were Sunnis convicted of al Qaeda attacks in Saudi Arabia a decade ago, it was Nimr and three other Shi’ites, all accused of involvement in shooting police, who attracted most attention in the region and beyond.
The US State Department also urged the Saudi government to “respect and protect human rights, and to ensure fair and transparent judicial proceedings in all cases”.
Saudi Arabia announced the execution of 47 prisoners on Saturday, including al-Qaida militants convicted of deadly attacks and at least four Shiite dissidents. “Saudi wants to show that not only is it fighting Shiites in neighboring countries, but also within its own borders”, said Egyptian political analyst Mustafa Labbad, director of Al-Sharq Center for Regional and Strategic studies in Cairo.
In Iraq, influential Shiite militia Asaib Ahl Al-Haq called on the government to reconsider allowing Saudi Arabia to keep its newly reopened embassy in Baghdad; the Saudi embassy was reopened Friday for the first time in more almost 25 years.
Shuwail, described by Saudi media as al-Qaeda’s top religious leader in the kingdom, was one of them. Of those executed, 45 were Saudi citizens, one was from Chad and another was from Egypt.
Yet critics say the ruling family has not done enough to tackle the sectarian intolerance, hatred of infidels and praise for the principles of violent jihad propagated by Saudi clerics.
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“If injustice stops against Shiites in the east, then (at that point) I can have a different opinion”, the cleric responded, according to his brother, who attended court sessions and spoke to The Associated Press just days before the October 2014 verdict.
