The comments came as Iranian officials announced that 40 people had been arrested for attacking the Saudi Arabian embassy in Tehran with fire bombs.
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Al-Nimr, however, also spoke out against the Iranian-backed government in Syria for killing protesters there.
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Sheikh Nimr was executed along with 46 others on Saturday, including three other Shiites and dozens of Al Qaeda members.
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Now Iraq’s former PM Nuri al-Maliki now says the execution “will topple the Saudi regime” – a view shared by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.
Sheikh Nimr’s death sentence was confirmed in October.
“We are particularly concerned that the execution of prominent Shia cleric and political activist Nimr al-Nimr risks exacerbating sectarian tensions at a time when they urgently need to be reduced”, he added.
In Lahore, around 1,500 took to the streets, calling Nimr’s execution a gross human rights violation, while in Karachi about a thousand men, women and children shouted slogans against the royal Saudi family.
Sunni-Shiite tensions flared in the region in the wake of al-Nimr’s execution, with Shiites in Iran, Lebanon, and Iraq warning of repercussions.
“While the Saudi government supports extremist groups, it cracks down on and executes its dissidents”, he said.
In Mashhad, Iran’s second biggest city, demonstrators meanwhile set fire to the Saudi consulate, according to news sites, carrying pictures of the alleged assault.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry has summoned the Saudi envoy in Tehran to protest, while the Saudi Foreign Ministry later said it had summoned Iran’s envoy to the kingdom to protest the critical Iranian reaction to the sheikh’s execution, saying it represented “blatant interference” in its internal affairs.
By Sunday afternoon crowds of protesters had gathered outside Saudi embassies in Beirut and Tehran, and protests were expected in al-Nimr’s hometown of al-Qatif in eastern Saudi Arabia.
Several Iranian governmental agencies are on the United Nations terror list and Iran has been a safe haven for a number of Al Qaida leaders since 2001, the source said.
Tehran’s police chief Hossein Sajedinia (C) asks protesters to end their rally against the execution of prominent Shiite Muslim cleric Nimr al-Nimr by Saudi authorities on January 3, 2016.
“We are today faced by an appalling event, a huge event that Al Saud took lightly… but this is an event that can not be taken lightly”, Nasrallah said in a speech broadcast live on the Lebanese Shi’ite group’s Al Manar television. Sheikh Abdul-Amir Kabalan, said, “This is a crime at a human level and will have repercussions in the coming days”.
The U.S. government expressed concern.
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. They also have accused each other of supporting terrorism.
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Saudi Arabia summoned the Iranian ambassador after Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei issued a strongly worded statement condemning the execution.
