Andrew Anglin
Daily Stormer
January 2, 2016
![Second Greatest Ally just pissed off rival hajis badly.](/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/5687ea46c46188442e8b457a-618x343.jpg)
Well, Saudi appears to have gone and done it.
Maybe not. Could settle down in a few days.
But right now, we’ve got a happening.
Saudi Arabia on Saturday executed a prominent Shiite cleric who played a key role in protests against the kingdom’s Sunni royal family, igniting sectarian tensions across the already inflamed region and jeopardizing a new burst of U.S. diplomacy aimed at tamping down conflicts in the Middle East.
Sheikh Nimr Baqr al-Nimr, 56, was among a group of 47 people put to death in 12 different cities around the country, either by firing squad or beheading, according to a statement from Saudi Arabia’s Interior Ministry.
Most of those executed were Sunnis accused of participating in Al Qaeda attacks in the kingdom. Nimr, however, was one of four Shiites put to death for their political activism, and he was 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 taking place elsewhere in the region.
The death sentence was carried out despite widespread international appeals for clemency and repeated warnings from the kingdom’s arch- enemy Iran that there would be consequences if the hugely popular cleric were killed.
Predictably, Shiites around the world expressed outrage, including Iran, potentially complicating a sudden surge of diplomacy spearheaded by the United States aimed at bringing peace to the troubled 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 already risks derailing a diplomatic effort led by the United States and Russia to convene peace talks between the factions in Geneva later 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 deal would help bridge the sectarian divide between Tehran and its biggest Arab ally were further diminished by the eruption of fury that followed Nimr’s death.
Anti-Saudi demonstrations were held in several Iranian cities, including Mashad, where protesters set fire to the Saudi consulate. Iran’s Foreign Ministry slammed the execution, warning that there would be repercussions.
“The Saudi government will pay a heavy price for adopting such policies,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossein Jaber Ansari, calling the execution “the depth of imprudence and irresponsibility” on the part of the Saudi government, according to Iranian news agencies.
One embassy stormed so far.
RT:
Iranian protesters broke into the Saudi embassy in Tehran after launching several Molotov cocktails into the building. The rally in front of the embassy follows Riyadh’s execution of a prominent Shiite cleric.
A Mehr news agency editor said on his Twitter that police used tear gas to scatter protesters.
Iran’s security forces had cordoned off the area around the embassy earlier. Photos from the scene show a heavy police presence.
A fire has reportedly broken out at the embassy building. A Mehr editor has reported a gas explosion, while photos from the scene show the building engulfed in flames.
Arabs are stupid people. Smarter people would have not enraged their enemies for no reason.
معترضان در سفارت عربستان در تهران را شکستند و وارد سفارت خانه شدند pic.twitter.com/WlaZXXtne8
— Behnam2k (@behnam2k) January 2, 2016
Gas suspiciously explodes in #Saudi embassy protests in #Tehran. Parking & 1st floor burnt completely. #SheikhNimr pic.twitter.com/xAA9teaUf1
— Hamid Reza (@hamid3663) January 2, 2016
At the same time as they executed these people, they ended the ceasefire with Shiite Yemen.
BBC:
A Saudi-led coalition battling rebels in Yemen has said it will no longer observe a ceasefire announced last month.
A statement carried on Saudi state media blamed violations by the Houthis and other allied militia.
But the coalition is still “keen to create the right conditions to find a peaceful solution”, the statement said.
The 15 December ceasefire began at the same time as UN-brokered talks aimed at ending Yemen’s conflict.
Negotiations broke up days later, however, without agreement. Further talks are due later this month.
Despite the truce, fierce fighting continued on the ground.
Saudis are feeling it. Gotta make up for those ISIS losses somehow, I guess.
But should they be feeling it?