Saudi Arabia will pay "a high price" for executing prominent Shia cleric
Nimr al-Nimr on Saturday, Iran’s foreign ministry said.
Ministry spokesperson Hossein Jaber Ansari strongly condemned the
execution, which came after his Shia country repeatedly asked its
Sunni-ruled rival to pardon the cleric.
"The Saudi government supports terrorist movements and extremists, but
confronts domestic critics with oppression and execution... the Saudi
government will pay a high price for following these policies," he said,
quoted by the official IRNA news agency.
Nimr, 56, was a driving force of the protests that broke out in 2011 in
Eastern Province, where the Shia minority of Saudi Arabia complains of
marginalisation.
"The execution of a figure like Sheikh al-Nimr, who had no means to
follow his political and religious goals but through speaking out,
merely shows the extent of irresponsibility & imprudence," said
Ansari.
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