Influential Shia figures condemn execution
Influential Shia figures and groups across the region were swift to condemn al-Nimr's execution, with Saudi Arabia's regional rival Iran describing it as "irresponsible."
Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Jaberi Ansari was quoted on the state-owned English-language Press TV warning that the Saudi monarchy would pay a heavy price for its policies. A senior Iranian cleric, Hossein Nouri Hamedani, said in a statement broadcast on state television that the region should expect "both Shiite and Sunni Muslims to react."
"Iran has been warning Saudi Arabia: 'Do not execute the Shia Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr.' And they said that over and over again," said Brian Stewart, a senior fellow at the Munk School for Global Affairs at the University of Toronto.
"Iran is a defender of the Shia world throughout the Middle East, and this is a direct challenge to Iran at the worst possible time," Stewart said. "This seems to be a complete defiance of protest over human rights, from Western countries that have asked them not do the executions, and a challenge to Iran," he said.
In Iraq, influential Shia militia Asaib Ahl Al-Haq called on the government to reconsider allowing Saudi Arabia to keep its newly reopened embassy in Baghdad; the Saudi embassy was reopened Friday for the first time in roughly 25 years.
In Lebanon, a top Shia cleric condemned al-Nimr's execution, describing it as "a grave mistake that could have been avoided with a royal amnesty that would have helped reduce sectarian tensions in the region."
Sheikh Abdul-Amir Kabalan, deputy head of the influential Supreme Shiite Islamic Council that is the main religious body for Lebanon's 1.2 million Shia, said the executions "will have repercussions in the coming days."
The Lebanese Shia militant group Hezbollah issued a statement calling al-Nimr's execution an "assassination" and a "ugly crime."
