Iran warns of ‘divine vengeance’; Saudi Arabia breaks relations
Saudi Arabia breaks diplomatic ties with Iran as crisis intensifies
(about 14 hours later)
BEIRUT — Saudi Arabia severed relations with Iran on Sunday amid the furor that erupted over the execution by the Saudi authorities of a prominent Shiite cleric.
BEIRUT — Saudi Arabia severed diplomatic relations with Iran on Sunday, escalating the regional crisis that erupted after the execution of a Shiite cleric triggered outrage among Shiites across the Middle East and beyond.
Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubair told reporters in Riyadh that the Iranian ambassador to Saudi Arabia had been given 48 hours to leave the country, citing concerns that Tehran’s Shiite government was undermining the security of the Sunni kingdom.
Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir told reporters in Riyadh that the Iranian ambassador to Saudi Arabia had been given 48 hours to leave the country, citing concerns that Tehran’s Shiite government was undermining the security of the mostly Sunni kingdom.
Saudi Arabian diplomats had already departed Iran after angry mobs trashed and burned the Saudi embassy in Tehran overnight Saturday, in response to the execution of Sheikh Nimr Baqr al-Nimr earlier in the day.
Saudi diplomats had already departed Iran after angry mobs trashed and burned the Saudi Embassy in Tehran overnight Saturday, in retaliation for the execution of Sheik Nimr Baqr al-Nimr earlier in the day.
Iran’s Supreme Leader warned on Sunday that there would be divine retribution for Saudi Arabia’s rulers after the execution of a renowned Shiite cleric, sustaining the soaring regional tensions that erupted in the wake of the killing.
The rift sets the region’s two biggest powerhouses on a collision course at a critical time for U.S. diplomacy aimed at bringing peace to the Middle East, and it raises the specter of worsening violence in countries where they back rival factions, such as Yemen and Syria.
The warning came hours after crowds of protesters stormed and torched the Saudi embassy in Tehran to vent their anger at the execution of Nimr Baqr al-Nimr, who was among 47 people put to death in the kingdom on Saturday.
Despite their countless international feuds, it was the first time since a two-year rupture in 1988-1990 that diplomatic relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia had formally been severed, according to Abdullah al-Shamri, a Saudi analyst and former diplomat.
In a posting on his website, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned that the execution “will cause serious troubles for the politicians of this [Saudi] regime in a very short time….The hands of divine vengeance will surely snatch — by their necks — those cruel individuals who took his life.”
Nimr was among 47 people put to death on the biggest single day of executions in Saudi Arabia since 1980. He was one of only four Shiite Muslims in the group and was by far the best known. Most of the others were Sunnis accused of carrying out a spate of attacks linked to the Sunni al-Qaeda organization over a decade ago.
The execution of Nimr, an outspoken critic of the Saudi royal family, has ignited sectarian tensions across the already inflamed region and jeopardized U.S. diplomacy aimed at tamping down conflicts in the Middle East.
Most of the 47 executed on Saturday were Sunnis accused of participating in Al Qaeda attacks. According to Saudi Arabia’s Interior Ministry, some were beheaded and others were shot by firing squad in 12 different locations around the kingdom.
Nimr, however, was one of four Shiites put to death for political activism and the leading figure in the anti-government demonstrations that swept the mostly Shiite east of the country in 2011, inspired by the Arab Spring protests elsewhere in the region.
A photo montage also posted on Khamenei’s website showed a split image of an Islamic State fighter preparing to carry out a beheading and a Saudi executioner. The caption asks the question “Any difference?” The photograph echoed numerous Iranian accusations that Saudi Arabia supports the Islamic State.
In response, Saudi Arabia issued an angry statement pointing out that Iran is often accused by many countries of supporting terrorism.
Iran “is the last regime in the world that could accuse others of supporting terrorism, considering that [Iran] is a state that sponsors terror, and is condemned by the United Nations and many countries,” said a Foreign Ministry statement carried by the official Saudi news agency.
The Saudi statement also pointed out that Iran also is frequently criticized by the international community for carrying out large numbers of executions.
Iran carried out 694 executions in the first half of last year, according to an Amnesty International statement in July. Saudi Arabia, with a population nearly a third smaller than Iran’s, carried out 157 in 2015, according to Amnesty and media reports.
There was no immediate indication however that either Tehran or Riyadh planned to take their spat beyond trading barbs, at least for now. The authorities in Tehran announced that they had made a number of arrests in connection with the rampage at the Saudi embassy in Tehran, and the Foreign Ministry pledged to secure Saudi Arabian diplomatic facilities against further attack.
“The diplomatic police are responsible for confronting any aggression against the diplomatic sites of Saudi Arabia and will act according to its duties to maintain public order and restore security to such places,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossein Jaber Ansari said.
The Saudi consulate in the Iranian city of Mashad was also set on fire during the protests that erupted after Nimr’s execution was announced.
The death sentence was carried out despite international appeals for clemency and repeated warnings from the kingdom’s archenemy in the region, Iran, that there would be consequences if the popular cleric were killed.
The U.S. State Department, which had refrained from publicly joining the appeals for Nimr’s life, said it had raised concerns at the highest levels of the Saudi government about the judicial process. In a statement, it called on Saudi Arabia “to respect and protect human rights” and to permit “peaceful expression of dissent.”
“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,” the State Department said in a statement. “In this context, we reiterate the need for leaders throughout the region to redouble efforts aimed at de-escalating regional tensions.”
Shiites around the world expressed outrage, potentially complicating a surge of U.S. diplomacy aimed at bringing peace to the region, according to Toby Matthiesen, an expert on Saudi Arabia at the University of Oxford.
“Nimr had become a household name amongst Shiite Muslims around the world. Many had thought his execution would be a red line and would further inflame sectarian tensions,” he said. “So this will complicate a whole range of issues, from the Syrian crisis to Yemen.”
Saudi Arabia and Iran are backing rival sides in Syria’s war, and their enmity risks derailing a diplomatic effort led by the United States and Russia to convene peace talks between the factions in Geneva this month.
The two feuding powers also support opposing sides in the war in Yemen and more broadly find themselves in opposition in the deeply divided politics of the mixed Sunni-Shiite nations of Iraq and Lebanon.
The Obama administration’s hopes that the conclusion last summer of an agreement limiting Iran’s nuclear program would help bridge the sectarian divide between Tehran and the United States’ biggest Arab ally were further diminished by the eruption of fury that followed Nimr’s death.
Iran summoned the Saudi charge d’affaires in Tehran to complain about the execution, and Saudi Arabia reciprocated by calling in the Iranian ambassador in Riyadh to protest the “hostile” remarks made by Iranian officials.
The execution also triggered renewed unrest in both Saudi Arabia and neighboring Bahrain, after years of calm following the suppression of the demonstrations in 2011.
Activists from both countries used Twitter and other social media to appeal for an uprising. In the eastern Saudi city of Qatif, hundreds took to the streets, and Saudi officials expanded patrols and bolstered checkpoints to deter further upheaval, according to a Qatif activist who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he feared for his safety.
The Nimr family issued a statement expressing shock and dismay at the execution, and urging “restraint and self-control” among Nimr’s followers.
The cleric’s brother, Mohammed al-Nimr, pledged on his Twitter account that the democracy movement would endure.
“Wrong, misled and mistaken [are] those who think that the killing will keep us from our rightful demands,” he tweeted after the execution was announced.
In Bahrain, where demonstrations by the country’s Shiite majority against the ruling Sunni royal family were quelled by the intervention of Saudi troops in 2011, there were reports of scattered protests in several Shiite towns and villages. Videos posted on YouTube by Bahraini activists showed hundreds of people, some wearing T-shirts featuring the bearded cleric’s face, marching through the streets in at least four locations.
Nimr had long served as the voice of Saudi Arabia’s Shiite minority, the target of discrimination, but he rocketed to prominence in 2011, articulating the sentiments not only of Shiites but also of many others in the region demanding change after decades of authoritarian rule.
He had consistently advocated nonviolence, and his views transcended the Sunni-Shiite divide, said Maryam al-Khawaja, a Bahraini human rights activist with the Gulf Center for Human Rights who lives in exile in Denmark.
“He said Sunnis and Shiites should unite and that anyone who supports the oppressors should be condemned,” she said, citing a 2012 speech in which Nimr condemned Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who is from the Shiite-affiliated Alawite sect and is backed by Iran, and the region’s Sunni authoritarian leaders, including the Saudi royal family.
“This was a big part of why he became problematic for the Saudi regime, because he refused to abide by the sectarian discourse that is basically enforced on everyone,” Khawaja said.
Nimr was arrested by Saudi security forces in 2012, after being shot in the legs during a car chase. He had been charged with “instigating unrest and undermining the kingdom’s security,” as well as delivering speeches against the government and defending political prisoners.
[Sectarianism comes back to bite Saudi Arabia]
[Sectarianism comes back to bite Saudi Arabia]
Condemnations also poured in from other Shiite figures and organizations. Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement said it held the United States and its allies responsible for Nimr’s execution because “they are giving direct protection to the Saudi regime.”
The cleric’s role as a leader in the anti-government protests that swept the Shiite eastern regions of Saudi Arabia nearly five years ago ensured that his death sentence would be carried out and that there would be an enraged response from Shiites across the region.
“This crime will remain a black mark that will plague the Saudi regime, which has been committing massacres since its inception,” Hezbollah said in a statement.
In tough comments Sunday, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, predicted “divine retribution” for Nimr’s executioners, saying that the execution “will cause serious troubles for the politicians of this [Saudi] regime in a very short time.”
In Iraq, there was an outpouring of anger from Shiite leaders and politicians, with the influential cleric Moqtada al-Sadr calling on Shiites in Iraq and across the region to protest the execution. He told Iraqis to take their demonstrations to the newly reopened Saudi Embassy in Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone, which welcomed a new Saudi ambassador to Iraq on Friday for the first time in nearly 25 years.
“The hands of divine vengeance will surely snatch — by their necks — those cruel individuals who took his life,” he said in comments posted on his website. A photo montage alongside the statement showed a split image of an Islamic State fighter preparing to carry out a beheading and a Saudi executioner, asking the question “Any difference?”
Iraq’s al-Sumaria television channel reported that Shiites in Karbala were demanding that Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi close the Saudi Embassy.
Saudi Arabia responded with an angry statement pointing out that Iran is often accused by the international community of supporting terrorism and of executing large numbers of people.
Abadi condemned the execution but offered no immediate response. Yemen’s Houthi rebel movement also issued a condemnation on its website.
Iran “is the last regime in the world that could accuse others of supporting terrorism,” said a Foreign Ministry statement reported by the official Saudi news agency.
Iran carried out 694 executions in the first half of last year, according to an Amnesty International statement in July. Saudi Arabia, whose population is about a third the size of Iran’s, carried out 157 in all of 2015, according to Amnesty and media reports.
Beyond the invocations of divine justice, however, Iran made no specific threats of retaliation, and Iranian leaders ordered a halt to attacks on Saudi diplomatic facilities after the assaults on the Saudi Embassy in Tehran and the Saudi Consulate in Mashhad late Saturday.
[In legacy of a revered martyr, Saudi Shiites find sustenance]
[In legacy of a revered martyr, Saudi Shiites find sustenance]
The advocacy group Amnesty International criticized all of the executions, including those of the accused al-Qaeda operatives, saying those killed had not been given fair trials. Nimr’s execution, in particular, suggested that Saudi authorities “are using the death penalty, in the name of counter terror, to settle scores and crush dissidents,” Amnesty International said in a statement.
Police officers were deployed to protect the charred remains of the Saudi Embassy, which had been ransacked and set ablaze by an angry crowd. Protesters who tried to gather nearby were dispersed by water cannons, according to photos posted on social media. The Iranian government announced that it had arrested 40 people in connection with the attack on the embassy.
Saudi Arabia carried out at least 157 executions in the past year, a record number according to human rights groups. Nimr’s nephew, Ali Mohammed al-Nimr, is on death row — he was sentenced last year to death by crucifixion for participating in the protests while he was 16 or 17 years old, also drawing widespread international condemnation.
“In no way is this justifiable,” President Hassan Rouhani said on his Twitter account. “All Iranian officials are fully committed to confront these illegal acts.”
Mustafa Salim in Baghdad and Brian Murphy in Washington contributed to this report.
In Lebanon, Hasan Nasrallah, leader of the Shiite Hezbollah movement, which is closely aligned with Iran, urged his followers not to rise to the bait of what he cast as sectarian provocation on the part of Saudi Arabia.
“The House of Saud wants to stir Sunni-Shiite sectarian strife everywhere, and our people must be aware of this and must not turn the issue into a Sunni-Shiite conflict,” he said. To do so would be “an act of betrayal of the blood of Sheik al-Nimr, and it serves the purpose of his killers.”
But the furor went deeper than the execution of a single cleric, striking at the heart of the Saudi-Iranian rivalry that has fueled, though not caused, much of the conflict engulfing the region.
Encouraged by Washington and by the regional realignment underway in the wake of the deal over Iran’s nuclear program, the two rivals had been tentatively exploring closer ties, and it is unclear whether Saudi Arabia intended such a rupture when it carried out the death penalty against Nimr.
The execution is in keeping with the newly aggressive stance adopted by King Salman, who has worn the crown for a little less than a year since the death of his half-brother, Abdullah, and it sent a powerful message that Saudi Arabia is intent on standing up to its regional rival, said Theodore Karasik of Gulf State Analytics, a consulting group.
“The Saudis hope to demonstrate that they are on the offensive in terms of the Sunni-Shiite divide, and they have just upped the ante on that significantly,” he said.
Saudi analysts question, however, whether the authorities in Riyadh intended or even foresaw the uproar that would ensue.
The different branches of Saudi Arabia’s government do not always coordinate, and it is unclear whether the Foreign Ministry, which has been taking steps to mend relations with Iran, would have been informed, said al-Shamri, the Saudi analyst.
A new Saudi ambassador to Iraq, whose Shiite-led government has also responded with outrage to the execution, was dispatched only days before the execution. Riyadh had been preparing to send a new ambassador to Tehran, after the previous envoy was withdrawn amid criticisms of a kiss, widely broadcast on social media, that he shared with Iranian politician Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.
“That tells me there was no timing. It was not planned,” al-Shamri said, pointing out that Nimr had been sentenced in 2014 and that the government had announced the plan for the mass execution in November. “Bureaucracy in Saudi Arabia is very slow.”
The Saudi government may simply have been seeking to strike a sectarian balance in carrying out the death penalty against so many people, said Toby Matthiesen, an expert on Saudi Arabia at Britain’s Oxford University. Some prominent figures were included in the group of 43 Sunnis put to death, and Saudi Arabia has to tread as carefully with its majority Sunni constituency as it does with the minority Shiites.
Maybe, he said, “they threw in a few Shia amongst the Sunni militants that were executed to say, ‘We are evenhanded, we execute both Sunni and Shia.’ ”
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