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Saudi Arabia cuts ties with Iran as row over cleric's death escalates


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Iranian Protesters Ransack Saudi Embassy After Execution of Shiite Cleric

Iranian protesters ransacked and set fire to part of the Saudi Embassy in Tehran on Saturday after Saudi Arabia executed an outspoken Shiite cleric who had criticized the kingdom’s treatment of its Shiite minority.

Protesters broke furniture and smashed windows in an annex to the embassy, said a witness who was reached by telephone from Tehran. The protesters also set fire to the room, said the witness, who would provide only his first name, Abolfazl, because he had been involved in the protest.

The police arrived and cleared the embassy grounds of protesters and extinguished the fire, he said.

The protest against the execution of the cleric, Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, turned violent after participants began throwing Molotov cocktails at the embassy and then broke into the compound.

Sheikh Nimr was executed in Saudi Arabia along with 46 men on terrorism-related charges, drawing condemnation from Iran and its allies in the region as well as protests around Iran and in other countries.

Saudi officials said the mass execution, one of the largest in the kingdom in decades, was aimed at deterring violence against the state. But analysts said that the grouping of Sheikh Nimr with hardened jihadists was a warning to domestic dissidents that could exacerbate sectarian tensions across the Middle East.

The executions were the first of 2016 and followed a year in which at least 157 people were put to death, the Muslim kingdom’s highest yearly total in two decades.

They coincided with increased attacks in Saudi Arabia by the jihadists of the Islamic State and an escalating rivalry between the Sunni monarchy and Shiite Iran that has fueled conflicts in Syria, Yemen and elsewhere.

Many in the region see the execution of Sheikh Nimr as part of that rivalry, and Shiite leaders in different countries condemned the move. Sheikh Nimr was an outspoken critic of the Saudi monarchy and was adopted as a symbolic leader by Shiite protesters in several Persian Gulf countries during the Arab Spring uprisings.

“It is clear that this barren and irresponsible policy will have consequences for those endorsing it, and the Saudi government will have to pay for pursuing this policy,” said Hossein Jaberi-Ansari, a spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry.

Criticism also came from Shiite politicians and clerics in Iraq, the Houthi rebel movement in Yemen and the Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah. In Iraq, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi wrote on Twitter that he was “shocked” and “saddened” at Sheikh Nimr’s execution. “Peaceful opposition is a fundamental right,” he wrote. “Repression does not last.”

Hundreds of Shiites took to the streets to protest in eastern Saudi Arabia and in Bahrain, witnesses said.

In Iran, protesters tore down a flag from the Saudi Consulate in the city of Mashhad, and demonstrations were planned for Sunday in Tehran.

Saudi officials denied that sectarianism had played any role in the executions.

“This means that Saudi Arabia will not hesitate to punish all terrorists,” said Anwar Eshki, a retired major general in the Saudi Army who is the chairman of a research center in Jidda.

When asked about Sheikh Nimr, General Eshki replied, “In Saudi Arabia, there is no difference between the criminals.”

Saudi allies like Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates defended the kingdom.

In executing Sheikh Nimr, Saudi Arabia had sent a “message of determination” to Iran, an Emirati political scientist, Abdulkhaliq Abdulla, wrote on Twitter, adding that the kingdom was better prepared to confront Iran “than at any other time.”

Most of those executed on Saturday had been convicted in connection with deadly attacks by Al Qaeda in the kingdom about a decade ago. Four, including Sheikh Nimr, were Shiites accused of violence against the police during protests.

In recent weeks, the Saudi government appeared to be preparing the public for the executions. Reports that they were imminent had appeared on Saudi news websites, and Al Arabiya, a Saudi-owned satellite channel, recently aired a multipart documentary that dramatized the kingdom’s fight against Al Qaeda.

On Saturday, some Saudis, including journalists at a government news conference, thanked officials for carrying out the death sentences. The top cleric, Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz Al Sheikh, called them a “mercy to the prisoners” because the executions would save them from committing more evil acts.

But some Western analysts said that executing Sheikh Nimr along with Qaeda militants conflated his outspoken activism with a grave national threat.

“This is indicative of the hard-line tilt the regime has taken,” said Frederic Wehrey, an analyst at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace who has traveled in Shiite parts of Saudi Arabia.

Sheikh Nimr, said to be in his mid-50s, was from Awamiyah, a poor town surrounded by palm groves in eastern Saudi Arabia that is known for opposition to the monarchy.

He studied in Iran and Syria, but rose to prominence for fiery sermons after his return that criticized the ruling family and called for Shiite empowerment, even suggesting that Shiites could secede from the kingdom.

This gained him a following mostly among young Shiites who felt discriminated against by Persian Gulf governments. When these young people joined Arab Spring protests in Bahrain and eastern Saudi Arabia in 2011, Sheikh Nimr became a leading figure.

During a sermon in 2012, Sheikh Nimr mocked Prince Nayef bin Abdulaziz, who had been the Saudi interior minister and had recently died.

“He will be eaten by worms and suffer the torments of hell in the grave,” Sheikh Nimr said. “The man who made us live in fear and terror; shouldn’t we rejoice at his death?”

Prince Nayef’s son, Mohammed bin Nayef, is now the crown prince and runs the Interior Ministry, which carries out death sentences.

The Saudi authorities arrested Sheikh Nimr in July 2012, while the kingdom was leading a regional push to end the pro-democratic activism of the Arab Spring. This included sending tanks to prop up the Sunni monarchy in Bahrain, which faced protests led by the country’s Shiite majority.

Shiites also protested in Saudi Arabia’s oil-rich Eastern Province, where many Shiites live and complain of discrimination.

Hundreds of people demonstrated in the province after video footage emerged of Sheikh Nimr’s arrest that showed him bleeding while in custody. The government said he had been wounded in a shootout. Sheikh Nimr faced charges including sedition and was sentenced to death in October 2014.

Despite his fiery tone, his supporters and others who followed his career said he had not called for violence.

“To lump this guy with terrorists is a stretch,” Mr. Wehrey said. “To my knowledge, he never called for armed insurrection.”

The executions came as Saudi Arabia sought to battle comparisons between its application of Shariah law and that of the Islamic State, the Sunni extremist group. Most of the executions on Saturday were by beheading; they were not public, unlike most Saudi executions. On Saturday, an image was posted on the website of the supreme leader in Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, depicting what appeared to be an Islamic State fighter about to kill a hostage and a Saudi executioner with a sword, with the question “Any differences?”

Saudi officials say their government puts to death only people who have been convicted of grave crimes, unlike the Islamic State, which kills hostages and releases grisly videos.

But human rights groups have criticized the Saudi justice system for not following due process by denying the accused access to legal counsel during interrogation and indicting suspects on vague charges like adopting extremist ideology or undermining the stability of the state.

The last mass execution of similar scale in Saudi Arabia was in 1980, when 63 jihadists were put to death after they seized the Grand Mosque in Mecca.

The executions of at least 157 people in 2015, a year that began with the inauguration of a new monarch, King Salman, were a sharp increase from the 90 people put to death in 2014. Saudi officials have argued that the increase reflects not a change in policy but a backlog of death sentences that had built up in the final years of the previous monarch, King Abdullah.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/03/world/middleeast/saudi-arabia-executes-47-sheikh-nimr-shiite-cleric.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0

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I will never understand how American have friendly relation with Saudi Arabia, one of the worst, retrograde country in the world. Oil has way too much power unfortunately.

If this Shiekh actually called for the violent overthrow of the government, and I don’t know that to be true, then he had to know what was coming. Hopefully the US will resist taking sides because if Middle East oil fields burn, of course this only makes the American and other stable regions of domestic oil more valuable — unfortunate at the gas pump but lower supply means higher prices for American producers. The ultimate revenge on both our "friends" the Saudis and Iran who both want to keep oil prices artificially low to hurt the United States. :clap:

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... because if Middle East oil fields burn, of course this only makes the American and other stable regions of domestic oil more valuable — unfortunate at the gas pump but lower supply means higher prices for American producers. The ultimate revenge on both our "friends" the Saudis and Iran who both want to keep oil prices artificially low to hurt the United States.

Domestic oil - more expensive - bad for American customers, good for American oil companies

Foreign oil - very cheap at the moment (not neccessarily because they keep it low, after all supply and demand rule the market and the market is not just the U.S.) - good for American customers - bad for American oil companies

So please explain what exactly is good or bad for the United States? And "hurt the United States"? Seriously? You sound like a PR person of the oil industry. Fact is every industry except for the oil industry are profiting from low oil prices because it lowers the production costs of their products and transport costs to get those products to the customer. From my perspective low oil prices are something great. I don't care if the oil industry earns less money. They still make billions in profits.

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If this Shiekh actually called for the violent overthrow of the government, and I don’t know that to be true, then he had to know what was coming. Hopefully the US will resist taking sides because if Middle East oil fields burn, of course this only makes the American and other stable regions of domestic oil more valuable — unfortunate at the gas pump but lower supply means higher prices for American producers. The ultimate revenge on both our "friends" the Saudis and Iran who both want to keep oil prices artificially low to hurt the United States. :clap:

Iran doesnt want the oil prices to be low. That was caused by Saudi to hurt Iran.

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Iran doesnt want the oil prices to be low. That was caused by Saudi to hurt Iran.

These prices are bankrupting the Saudis as well if this goes on much longer. But without a doubt it is hurting small independent shale producers in the US that were a big part of the energy boom leading us out of recession. Unfortunately there isn't much we can do as ethical, responsible consumers to avoid supporting terrorism besides driving less. It's nearly impossible to determine where a particular service station gets its gasoline because crude oil that is refined is traded among a range of companies on the global market by its grade, not source....and in any case oil from Angola or Russia or Venezuela or wherever could be even worse than from the Middle East. :(

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Saudi Arabia cuts ties with Iran as row over cleric's death escalates

Saudi Arabia cut ties with Iran on Sunday, responding to the storming of its embassy in Tehran in an escalating row between the rival Middle East powers over Riyadh's execution of a Shi'ite Muslim cleric.

Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir told a news conference in Riyadh that the envoy of Shi'ite Iran had been asked to quit Saudi Arabia within 48 hours. The kingdom, he said, would not allow the Islamic republic to undermine its security.

Iranian protesters stormed the Saudi embassy in Tehran early on Sunday and Shi'ite Iran's top leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, predicted "divine vengeance" for the execution of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, an outspoken opponent of the ruling Al Saudi family.

Jubeir said the attack in Tehran was in line with what he said were earlier Iranian assaults on foreign embassies there and with Iranian policies of destabilizing the region by creating "terrorist cells" in Saudi Arabia.

"The kingdom, in light of these realities, announces the cutting of diplomatic relations with Iran and requests the departure of delegates of diplomatic missions of the embassy and consulate and offices related to it within 48 hours. The ambassador has been summoned to notify them," he said.

Speaking on Iranian state television, Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said in Tehran's first response that by cutting diplomatic ties, Riyadh could not cover up "its major mistake of executing Sheikh Nimr".

The United States, Saudi Arabia's biggest backer in the West, responded by encouraging diplomatic engagement and calling for leaders in the region to take "affirmative steps" to reduce tensions.

"We believe that diplomatic engagement and direct conversations remain essential in working through differences and we will continue to urge leaders across the region to take affirmative steps to calm tensions," an official of President Barack Obama's administration said.

Tensions between revolutionary, mainly Shi'ite Iran and Saudi Arabia's conservative Sunni monarchy have run high for years as they backed opposing forces in wars and political conflicts across the Middle East, usually along sectarian lines.

However, Saturday's execution of a cleric whose death Iran had warned would "cost Saudi Arabia dearly", and the storming of the kingdom's Tehran embassy, raised the pitch of the rivalry.

Strong rhetoric from Tehran was matched by Iran's Shi'ite allies across the region, with Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, the head of Lebanese militia Hezbollah, describing the execution as "a message of blood". Moqtada al-Sadr, an Iraqi Shi'ite cleric, called for angry protests.

Demonstrators protesting against the execution of the cleric, Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, broke into the embassy building, smashed furniture and started fires before being ejected by police.

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani condemned the execution as "inhuman", but also urged the prosecution of "extremist individuals" for attacking the embassy and the Saudi consulate in the northeastern city of Mashhad, state media reported.

Tehran's police chief said an unspecified number of "unruly elements" were arrested for attacking the embassy with petrol bombs and rocks. A prosecutor said 40 people were held.

"The unjustly spilled blood of this oppressed martyr will no doubt soon show its effect and divine vengeance will befall Saudi politicians," Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was quoted as saying by Iran's state television.

PROTESTS

Nimr, the most vocal critic of the dynasty among the Shi'ite minority, had come to be seen as a leader of the sect's younger activists, who had tired of the failure of older, more measured, leaders to achieve equality with Sunnis.

His execution, along with three other Shi'ites and 43 members of Al Qaeda, sparked angry protests in the Qatif region in eastern Saudi Arabia, where demonstrators denounced the ruling Al Saud dynasty, and in the nearby Gulf kingdom of Bahrain.

Relatives of Nimr, reached by telephone, said authorities had informed them that the body had been buried "in a cemetery of Muslims" and would not be handed over to the family.

Although most of the 47 men killed in the kingdom's biggest mass execution for decades were Sunnis convicted of al Qaeda attacks in Saudi Arabia a decade ago, it was Nimr and three other Shi'ites, all accused of involvement in shooting police, who attracted most attention in the region and beyond.

Khamenei's website carried a picture of a Saudi executioner next to notorious Islamic State executioner 'Jihadi John', with the caption "Any differences?". The Revolutionary Guards said "harsh revenge" would topple "this pro-terrorist, anti-Islamic regime".

Saudi Arabia on Saturday summoned the Iranian ambassador to protest what it described as hostile remarks emerging from Tehran. On Sunday, Riyadh's Gulf allies the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Bahrain also summoned Tehran's envoys to their countries to lodge complaints.

IRAQ ALSO FURIOUS

In Iraq, whose Shi'ite-led government is close to Iran, religious and political figures demanded that ties with Riyadh be severed, calling into question Saudi attempts to forge a regional alliance against Islamic State, which controls swaths of Iraq and Syria.

Iraq's top Shi'ite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani described the executions as an "unjust aggression". The opinion of Sistani, based in the Shi'ite holy city of Najaf south of Baghdad, carries weight with millions of Shi'ites in Iraq and across the region, including in Saudi Arabia.

Despite the focus on Nimr, the executions seemed mostly aimed at discouraging jihadism in Saudi Arabia, where dozens have died in the past year in attacks by Sunni militants.

But Saudi Arabia's Western allies, many of whom supply it with arms, are growing concerned about its new assertiveness.

The U.S. State Department said Nimr's execution "risks exacerbating sectarian tensions at a time when they urgently need to be reduced", a sentiment echoed by EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini. The State Department also urged Saudi Arabia to respect and protect human rights.

France said on Sunday it deeply deplored the mass execution and said it reiterated its opposition to the death penalty in all circumstances.

In Istanbul, hundreds of protesters, some carrying pictures of Nimr and chanting "Saudi Arabia will pay the price", gathered outside its consulate on Sunday as riot police stood guard.

The four Shi'ites had been convicted of involvement in shootings and petrol bomb attacks that killed several police during anti-government protests from 2011-13. More than 20 Shi'ites were shot dead by the authorities in those protests.

Family members of the executed Shi'ites have denied they were involved in attacks and said they were only peaceful protesters against sectarian discrimination.

Human rights groups say the kingdom's judicial process is unfair, pointing to accusations that confessions have been secured under torture and that defendants in court have been denied access to lawyers. Riyadh denies torture and says its judiciary is independent.

IRAQ ALSO FURIOUS

In Iraq, whose Shi'ite-led government is close to Iran, religious and political figures demanded that ties with Riyadh be severed, calling into question Saudi attempts to forge a regional alliance against Islamic State, which controls swaths of Iraq and Syria.

Iraq's top Shi'ite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani described the executions as an "unjust aggression". The opinion of Sistani, based in the Shi'ite holy city of Najaf south of Baghdad, carries weight with millions of Shi'ites in Iraq and across the region, including in Saudi Arabia.

Despite the focus on Nimr, the executions seemed mostly aimed at discouraging jihadism in Saudi Arabia, where dozens have died in the past year in attacks by Sunni militants.

But Saudi Arabia's Western allies, many of whom supply it with arms, are growing concerned about its new assertiveness.

The U.S. State Department said Nimr's execution "risks exacerbating sectarian tensions at a time when they urgently need to be reduced", a sentiment echoed by EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini. The State Department also urged Saudi Arabia to respect and protect human rights.

France said on Sunday it deeply deplored the mass execution and said it reiterated its opposition to the death penalty in all circumstances.

In Istanbul, hundreds of protesters, some carrying pictures of Nimr and chanting "Saudi Arabia will pay the price", gathered outside its consulate on Sunday as riot police stood guard.

The four Shi'ites had been convicted of involvement in shootings and petrol bomb attacks that killed several police during anti-government protests from 2011-13. More than 20 Shi'ites were shot dead by the authorities in those protests.

Family members of the executed Shi'ites have denied they were involved in attacks and said they were only peaceful protesters against sectarian discrimination.

Human rights groups say the kingdom's judicial process is unfair, pointing to accusations that confessions have been secured under torture and that defendants in court have been denied access to lawyers. Riyadh denies torture and says its judiciary is independent.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-saudi-security-iran-fury-idUSKBN0UH00C20160103

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These prices are bankrupting the Saudis as well if this goes on much longer. But without a doubt it is hurting small independent shale producers in the US that were a big part of the energy boom leading us out of recession. Unfortunately there isn't much we can do as ethical, responsible consumers to avoid supporting terrorism besides driving less. It's nearly impossible to determine where a particular service station gets its gasoline because crude oil that is refined is traded among a range of companies on the global market by its grade, not source....and in any case oil from Angola or Russia or Venezuela or wherever could be even worse than from the Middle East. :(

That's why it was a stupid move. The oil is the only thing Saudi has and many of these countries in the gulf has. The Saudis dropped the prices to weaken Iran's position but shot themselves in the foot. But the Saudi Royal family doesn't care, they already have properties and wealth transferred abroad, whenever the oil wells dry they will be safely out leaving behind millions behind to rot.

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I don't really see the difference between Saudi Arabia and ISIS nowadays :unsure:

Only the question of who is the ruler. ISIS has to be strong enough to take out Assad but the not given enough support to overthrow the Saudi leadership too. It is a balancing act. There is no difference ideologically. :(

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The difference is that Arabia Saudi works openly for the USA to help the White House control the Gulf

And ISIS is some kind of rebel faction that went out of control.

Except the US is not going to help them go to war against Iran. Maybe the mostly Shia oil workers in Saudi Arabia should try to sabotage production instead. :/

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Well Lizzie is nicer name than Elizabeth but we don't call her, her majesty Queen Lizzie.

I prefer Gutown over Brighton, it's a nicer name but doesn't mean it will be.

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