The sheikh was executed along with 46 other people facing “terrorism” charges in the Kingdom, but protesters and Iranian officials say al-Nimr was a political target because of his opposition to Saudi Arabia’s Sunni leaders.
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UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Saturday that he was “deeply dismayed” over the execution of 47 people, including a prominent Shia cleric, in Saudi Arabia.
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The comments by the Guard mirror those of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who also strongly criticized the sheikh’s execution.
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Iran’s supreme leader has said Saudi politicians will face “divine vengeance” over the .
In Tehran, angry crowds hurled Molotov cocktails and stormed the Saudi Arabian Embassy in protest at al-Nimr’s execution before being cleared by police, ISNA news agency reported.
Iranian media quoted foreign ministry spokesman Hossein Jaber Ansari as asking police to “protect Saudi Arabia’s diplomatic missions in Tehran and Mashhad… and prevent any demonstrations in front of these sites”. Saudi Arabia was also a vocal critic of the recent Iranian agreement with world powers that ends global economic sanctions in exchange for limits on the Iranian nuclear program. The Shiite-majority nation issued a statement deploring the execution and warning that Saudi Arabia would pay a heavy price for its policies. However, the sheikh’s brother, Mohammed al-Nimr, told The Associated Press that Saudi officials told his family that the cleric was already buried in an undisclosed cemetery.
Other leading Shiite clerics in Iraq have reacted with outrage to the execution on Saturday by the Saudi authorities of Nimr and other Shiite activists.
Iraq’s top Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani on Sunday condemned the execution of Al-Nimr, calling it an “unjust agression”.
In al-Daih, west of the capital, Shiite protesters chanted against Saudi Arabia’s ruling Al Saud family, as well as against Bahrain’s ruling Al Khalifa family. Pictures posted on Twitter showed parts of the interior on fire and smashed furniture inside one office. After Arab Spring protests erupted in 2011, Saudi Arabia and Iran entered into a fierce proxy war in Syria, where they are supporting opposite sides of the conflict, and in Yemen, where Saudi Arabia has been bombing Iranian-allied rebels since March.
The executions stirred sectarian anger across the Middle East.
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A nuclear deal with Iran backed by Saudi Arabia’s biggest ally and protector, the United States, has done little to calm nerves in Riyadh.
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