It was the largest execution carried out by Saudi Arabia in three and a half decades and illustrates the kingdom’s new aggressiveness under King Salman.
Advertisement
Trump blasts Obama’s planned actions on gun control
Obama’s address came as a Texas law allowing licensed firearms owners to carry handguns openly in public places took effect. But anything Obama does by executive action is likely to be undone if a Republican moves into the White House in 2017.
Demonstrators in Iran, Pakistan, Bahrain, and elsewhere marched in the streets Sunday, chanting and carrying signs, in protest of Saudi Arabia’s execution of a respected Shiite Muslim cleric.
But Saudi Arabia’s Western allies, many of whom supply it with arms, are growing concerned about its new assertiveness in the region and at home.
Some of the attacks happened between 2003 and 2006. Most of those executed were Sunnis.
He called it “a very disturbing development indeed, particularly as some of those sentenced to death were accused of non-violent crimes”.
“Shia Muslims are a minority in the Sunni Muslim country of Saudi Arabia”, Leila explains.
Al-Abadi tweeted Saturday night that he was “shocked and saddened” by al-Nimr’s execution, adding that “peaceful opposition is a fundamental right”.
He was a vocal supporter of mass protests in the Saudi-Arabia’s Shea-majority Eastern Province in 2011.
Islamic State militants have exploited this fault line, striking Shiite mosques previous year.
The US Department of State had said earlier that the move risked “exacerbating sectarian tensions at a time when they urgently need to be reduced”.
“We have previously expressed our concerns about the legal process in Saudi Arabia and have frequently raised these concerns at high levels of the Saudi government”.
The main stories on its online homepage describe worldwide outrage over the killings as “defending terror acts”, while the editorial says: “For Saudi Arabia, it is a matter of sovereignty and no country should interfere in the kingdom’s internal affairs”. “While the Saudi government supports extremist groups, it cracks down on and executes its dissidents”, spokesperson Hossein Jaber Ansari said.
Saudi Arabia said the executed men had been convicted of adopting the radical “takfiri” ideology, joining “terrorist organisations” and implementing various “criminal plots”.
Iran’s statements reveal its “true face as a backer of terrorism, which is a continuity of its policies in undermining security and stability in the region”, the unidentified Saudi ministry spokesman said.
Saudi Arabia summoned the Iranian ambassador after Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei issued a strongly worded statement condemning the execution.
Advertisement
Protests also took place in Beirut, as Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah called al-Nimr “the martyr, the holy warrior”.
