Western powers, many of which supply billions of dollars worth of weaponry to Gulf Arab powers, tried to tamp down the tensions with Iran but also deplored the executions, as human rights groups strongly criticised Saudi Arabia’s judicial process and protesters gathered outside Saudi embassies.
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Saudi Arabia cited the “hostile” comments made by Iran in the wake of the execution by the Saudi authorities on Saturday of a prominent Shiite cleric, as well as the subsequent attack on its embassy in Tehran for the decision to expel Iranian diplomats.
Sunni Arab nations accused Tehran of repeatedly meddling in their affairs, with Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir saying “Iran’s history is full of negative interference and hostility in Arab issues”. Saudi Arabia’s execution of 47 people on Saturday was, in many Saudi eyes, part of a crackdown of domestic extremists who could potentially threaten the monarchy.
He fears both Tehran and Riyadh could miscalculate their responses.
Analysts believe Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed, the king’s 30-year-old son, has been the driving force behind the kingdom’s more assertive stance and its willingness to take extreme political risks in the region, particularly the push into the war in Yemen. Weinberg suspects the Saudi leaders may not have considered the possible geopolitical fallout from executing the Shi’ite cleric.
The Times of India talked to some Shiite organizations planning protests on January 7 at the Saudi embassy in Delhi, among other locations, but a mass protest formed at the embassy on Monday.
A man living at one mosque in the town of Hilla was shot dead by unidentified gunmen and a Sunni muezzin – who recites the Muslim call to prayer – was shot dead in the city of Iskandariyah, security sources said. Amnesty International, a group that opposes the death penalty in general, has pointed out that beheadings are sometimes used as punishment for relatively minor crimes and that trials that result in beheadings are often flawed.
Kuwait condemned the attacks on Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran and expressed support for the kingdom.
Outlook India reports some 25 arrests in Delhi after “scores of protests gathered outside the embassy gates”, and the police deployed water cannons against them.
Sudan, which has been looking to Saudi Arabia for aid since the secession of oil-rich South Sudan in 2011, on Monday announced an “immediate severing of ties” over the diplomatic mission attacks.
Bahraini officials have blamed Iran for training militants and attempting to smuggle arms into the country.
He added they were different from killings by Isis, since Saudi Arabia is “a legitimately constituted state operating in a state system”.
Saudi Arabia’s allies rallied it to its side Monday, with a number of nations following its lead in either cutting or reducing diplomatic ties with Iran.
“The Saudi-U.S. defense relationship is a juggernaut”, said Michael Knights, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy think tank.
The Saudis are betting that their large cash reserves will allow them to hold out longer and retain their current share of the market compared to Iran and other countries that have much weaker economies. But with confrontation flaring between Iran and Saudi Arabia, the prospects for the Syrian peace talks look even more forlorn.
“Those who said that you can not divorce the nuclear deal from Iran’s other activities in the region were right”, he told AFP.
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The rupture sets the region’s two biggest powerhouses on a collision course at a critical time for U.S.-led diplomacy in the Middle East, and raised the specter of worsening violence in the countries where they back rival factions, such as Iraq, Yemen and Syria.
