Storming the Saudi Arabian embassy in Tehran, angry Shiites protested the Jan. 2 execution of Shiite Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr together with 46 other prisoners accused of sedition in The Kingdom. Executing 157 prisoners in 2015, Saudi Arabia takes the lead in capital punishment, showing King Salman’s commitment to protect his monarchy. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned Saudi Arabia of “divine revenge,” letting protesters hurl Molotov cocktails at the Saudi embassy in Tehran. Saudi authorities accused the country’s top Shiite critic of sedition, trying to overthrow the Saudi regime during the so-called Arab Spring in 2011. Arrested under protests in 2012, al-Nimr was fingered for sedition against The Kingdom, despite the presence of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, threatening the House of Saud far more than Saudi’s oppressed Shiite community.
Al-Nimr’s execution shows the tone deafness of the Saudi royal family, killing Shiites titular leader in The Kingdom. Saudi officials could have easily deported al-Nimr back to Iran instead of martyring the popular Shiite cleric. Calling al-Nimr’s execution “medieval act of savagery,” Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said it would lead to The Kingdom’s “downfall.” Getting lost in translation, Khamenei offered some harsh words, insisting al-Nimr “neither invited people to take up arms nor hatched covert plots. The only thing he did was public criticism,” said Khamenei, launching an official protest. Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Ministry accused Tehran of terrorism for protesting al-Nimr’s execution. Iranian protests “revealed its [Iran’s] true face represented in support of terrorism,” said the Saudi Foreign Ministry. Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir severed diplomatic ties Jan. 3 with Tehran.
Pointing fingers at Tehran as a state sponsor of terrorism, al-Jubeir refuses to admit Saudi Arabia’s proxy war against the Shiite government of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad. Al-Jubeir tipped his hand complaining about the Dec. 25 Russian air strike in the Ghouta suburb of Damascus killing 44-year-old Saudi-backed Syrian opposition leader Zahran Alloush. Al-Jubeir warned that killing Alloush, who headed the Saudi-funded Jaish al-Islam, did not serve the cause of Syrian peace. Saudi’s Foreign Minstry insisted on regime change in Damascus, something rubber-stamped by the U.S. State Department until finally rescinded by Secretary of State John Kerry in Moscow Dec. 15 with a special agreement with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Sponsoring several terror groups battling al-Assad, Saudi Arabia’s become the chief architect and backer of the so-called Syrian civil war.
Hurling Molotov cocktails into the Saudi embassy in Tehran, al-Jubeir had finally seen enough. Saudi Arabia “is breaking off diplomatic ties with Iran and request that all members of the Iranian diplomatic mission leave . . within 48 hours,” al-Jubeir told a news conference. Iran’s Gen. Hossein Sajendina told the semi-official Tasnim news agency that his police tried to restore law-and-order near the Saudi embassy. Calling the riots “totally unjustifiable,” Iranian President Hasan Rouhani tried to contain the fall out from protesters’ attacks on the Saudi embassy. Al-Jubeir wasted no time breaking off diplomatic relations, hurling more insults at Tehran for sponsoring terrorism. Calling al-Nimr “the martyr, the holy warrior,” Hezbollah’s Beirut-based Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah condemned his execution. Shiite leaders from Bahrain to Pakistan denounced the Saudi government.
White House and State Department officials walk a tightrope condemning their petro-dollar-rich ally Saudi Arabia in public. Saying the U.S. was “particularly concerned” that al-Nimr’s execution risked “exacerbating sectarian tensions at a time when the urgently need to be reduced,” said State Department spokesman John Kirby, refusing to publicly condemn a key Mideast ally. Without condemning Saudi’s rampant beheadings, sponsoring terrorism and human rights abuses, it’s clear that the White House and State Department can’t be objective. Despite Kerry acquiescing to Putin’s position of backing Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, the U.S. continues to back Saudi Arabia’s foreign policy. “Iran’s history is full of negative interference and hostility in Arab issues, and it is always accompanied by destruction,” said al-Jubeir, taking no responsibility for al-Nimr’s execution.
Time is long overdue for the White House and U.S. State Department to condemn Saudi Arabia’s execution of a popular Shiite cleric. It’s taken years for Obama and Kerry to finally admit their regime change policy in Syria serves no one other than Saudi Arabia. Executing al-Nimr went over the top for Riyadh, proving King Salman government shows no tolerance of religious minorities, especially Shiite Muslims. Killing 2,177 pilgrims Sept. 24, 2015 in a Haj stampede, 464 Iranians lost their lives. King Salman’s offered no apologies, other that saying his government was looking into the deaths. Pointing fingers at Iran, al-Jubeir ignores the role Saudi Arabia plays in Syria’s so-called civil war, killing some 250,000 and displacing more than 2 million into neighboring countries and Europe. Saudi’s history sponsoring terrorism and proxy wars screams out for global recognition.
