Saudi Arabia severs diplomatic relations with Iran

The incident is widely viewed as the largest contemporary mass execution for security infractions. "The only thing he did was public criticism".

York University political science professor Saeed Rahnema said it is unlikely that the cleric's death will have a dramatic impact on the already tense relationship between Iran and Saudi Arabia in the long term, calling Khamenei's warning "pure rhetoric".

He died on Saturday alongside 46 terrorism convicts.

Saudi Foreign Ministry spokesman Osama Naqli accused Tehran of failing to intervene in the overnight attacks on Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran. - Reuters pic, January 4, 2016.Saudi Arabia cut ties with Iran yesterday, 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 Shia Muslim cleric. In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said the U.S. condemned the embassy attack and called on all sides "to avoid any actions that would further heighten tensions in the region".

Iran accuses Saudi Arabia of supporting terrorism in part because it backs Syrian rebel groups fighting to oust its embattled ally, President Bashar Assad.

SAUDI Arabia has severed diplomatic ties with Iran following an attack on the kingdom's embassy in Tehran. Later that night, in predominantly Shia Iran, Molotov cocktails smashed into the Saudi embassy in Tehran.

- Washington said it had uncovered an Iranian plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States. Prosecutors said 40 arrests were made.

NPR's Peter Kenyon reports that Iran's supreme leader promised divine retribution while Iran's president condemned both the execution and the subsequent storming of the Saudi embassy in Tehran on Saturday.

"France reiterates its constant opposition to the death penalty, in all places and all circumstances", the ministry said in a statement. Later, hundreds also gathered at the central square.

However, al-Nimr's brother Mohammed al-Nimr has asked that any reaction to the execution be peaceful.

Nimr was considered a terrorist by Riyadh but hailed in Iran as a champion of the rights of Saudi Arabia's marginalised Shia Muslim minority. "Again and again Tehran has thumbed their nose at the West. They continue to sponsor terrorism and launch ballistic missiles and no one is doing anything about it. The Saudis really don't care if they anger the White House".

Amir-Abdollahian (pictured above) asserted that this is not the first time Saudi Arabia has threatened regional security with its "strategic errors" and "hasty approaches".

The society said al-Nimr will be remembered as a promoter of unity and peace. "Repression does not last".

The top Shia cleric in Iraq, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani denounced the execution as an "unjust aggression".

News of the execution of Sheik Nimr al-Nimr has triggered protests throughout the worldwide Shia community.

Executions have soared in Saudi Arabia since King Salman ascended the throne a year ago with 153 people put to death in 2015, almost twice as many as in 2014, for crimes ranging from murder to drug trafficking, armed robbery, rape and apostasy.

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