Iran Protests Execution of Sheikh
BAGHDAD — Saudi Arabia cut diplomatic ties with Iran
on Sunday and gave Iranian diplomats 48 hours to leave the kingdom,
marking a swift escalation in a strategic and sectarian rivalry that
underpins conflicts across the Middle East.
The
surprise move, announced in a news conference by Adel al-Jubeir, the
Saudi foreign minister, followed harsh criticism by Iranian leaders of
the Saudis’ execution of an outspoken Shiite cleric, Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, and the storming of the Saudi Embassy in Tehran by protesters in response.
The
cutting of diplomatic ties came at a time when the United States and
others had hoped that even limited cooperation between the two powers
could help end the crushing civil wars in Syria and Yemen while easing
tensions in Iraq, Bahrain, Lebanon and elsewhere.
Instead,
analysts feared it would increase sectarian divisions and investment in
proxy wars. “This is a very disturbing escalation,” said Michael
Stephens, an analyst at the Royal United Services Institute, a research
center based in London. “It has enormous consequences for the people of
the region, and the tensions between the two sides are going to mean
that instability across the region will continue.”
American
officials have said the Saudi-Iranian split does not bode well for
international peacemaking efforts that require the two powers to make
compromises.
The
United States called for dialogue, with the State Department spokesman,
John Kirby, saying, “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.”
Secretary
of State John Kerry, from his home in Idaho, spoke Sunday with Iran’s
foreign minister, Mohammed Javad Zarif. The two have a close
relationship, developed while negotiating the Iranian nuclear accord.
Officials would not describe the contents of the call, but it was
clearly an effort to urge the Iranians not to escalate the situation
further by retaliating.
Still,
the prospects for accommodation appeared to have reached their lowest
point in years. Saudi Arabia and Iran follow separate strands of Islam
and have long been rivals for influence across the Middle East and
beyond. That has accelerated in recent years as the Iraq war and the
Arab Spring uprisings upturned the regional order and gave both nations
new ways to extend their reach.
That
put them on opposite sides of various conflicts, often divided by sect.
In Bahrain, Saudi Arabia sent tanks to support the Sunni monarchy
against protesters led by the island nation’s Shiite majority. In Syria,
Iran has bankrolled the government of President Bashar al-Assad while
Saudi Arabia has supported Sunni rebels seeking his ouster. And in
Yemen, Saudi Arabia has led an air campaign against Shiite Houthi
rebels.
Further
straining tensions are Saudi concerns that the Iranian nuclear
agreement could increase Tehran’s ability to spread its influence. And
Iran remains angry over Saudi Arabia’s handling of a stampede during the hajj in September that left more than 2,400 pilgrims dead, including more than 450 Iranians, according to a
But
setting off the war of words that finally broke relations was Saudi
Arabia’s execution on Saturday of Sheikh Nimr, who had called for the
overthrow of the Saudi royal family and served as a spiritual leader for
protesters from the kingdom’s Shiite minority. The Saudi government
accused him of inciting violence and executed him with 46 others, most
of them said to be members of Al Qaeda.
The
reaction in the region generally broke cleanly along sectarian lines,
with Shiite leaders criticizing the Saudis for killing a man they called
a peaceful dissident, while Saudi Arabia’s Sunni allies applauded what
they called the country’s efforts to fight terrorism.
Then
late Saturday, protesters in Tehran ransacked the Saudi Embassy, and
Iranian leaders turned up the rhetoric. “God’s hand of retaliation will
grip the neck of Saudi politicians,” Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said in comments reported on his official website.
The
Iranians did, however, appear to take steps to prevent the dispute from
escalating further, arresting 40 Iranians in the anti-Saudi mayhem.
Iran’s
president, Hassan Rouhani, condemned the execution, but said that the
attacks on the Saudi Embassy in Tehran and on the Saudi Consulate in
Mashhad had damaged Iran’s reputation. “We do not allow rogue groups to
commit illegal actions and damage the holy reputation of the Islamic
Republic of Iran,” he said in a statement. Outside the Middle East, some
criticized the Saudi justice system and the mass execution, the largest
in the kingdom in decades.
Ban
Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary general, said Saturday that he
was “deeply dismayed” by the execution of Sheikh Nimr and the other men
after “trials that raised serious concerns over the nature of the
charges and the fairness of the process.” The European Union cited
similar questions about “freedom of expression and the respect of basic
civil and political rights.”
The
Obama administration had appeared caught by surprise by the mass
execution and scrambled at first to understand exactly who had been put
to death. Privately several senior administration officials expressed
anger at the Saudis, both for what one called “an apparent absence of
due process” in the executions, and another for “negligent disregard”
for how it could inflame the region. The officials spoke on the
condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the diplomatic
engagement with both countries.
The
Saudi Foreign Ministry responded to Iran’s criticism on Sunday by
accusing it of “blind sectarianism” and of spreading terrorism. Hours
later, Mr. Jubeir, the Saudi foreign minister, announced the ending of
diplomatic ties at a news conference in Riyadh, saying the kingdom would
not allow Iran to undermine its security. “The history of Iran is full
of negative and hostile interference in Arab countries, always
accompanied by ruin, destruction and the killing of innocent souls,” he
said. Analysts said the split could further destabilize the region.
“These
countries don’t trust one another, and they see every event as an
opportunity to raise tensions,” said Abbas Kadhim, a senior foreign
policy fellow at the School for Advanced International Studies at Johns
Hopkins University.
Since
Saudi Arabia and Iran both appear reluctant to attack each other
directly, he worried that they would increase their investment in
indirect confrontations elsewhere. “Both countries will try their best
to try to fortify their proxies and their activities, which is going to
create more trouble,” Mr. Kadhim said.
That
risks derailing a new round of international peace talks aimed at
ending the civil war in Syria, a process that Mr. Kerry has worked hard
to get going. The
talks, meant to begin this month, were to be the first to bring
together the Syrian government, the opposition and a range of countries
that include Iran and Saudi Arabia.
“We’re
obviously concerned this could blow up the process,” one senior Obama
administration official said. “But it’s too early to say what the impact
could be.”
Saudi
officials have long said they think that Mr. Kerry’s effort is doomed
to failure, and that was before Sunday’s diplomatic breach with Iran.
Still,
Obama administration officials noted Iran’s efforts over the weekend to
keep the situation on the streets from spinning out of control. “The
Iranians, in this case, acted responsibly,” Michael Morell, the former
deputy director of the C.I.A., said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “The
police showed up very quickly. They made a number of arrests.”
Despite
that, officials believe that the Sunni-Shiite proxy war that was
already underway in Syria and Yemen may only grow more intense, at least
for a while. And in coming weeks the United States and its negotiating
partners in the Iran deal are preparing to carry out that accord,
including an end to sanctions that have tied up more than $100 billion
in Iranian assets frozen in overseas bank accounts. Critics are already
arguing that will give Iran more money to fund the conflict in Syria and
beyond.
Shortly
after announcing the execution of Sheikh Nimr on Saturday, Saudi Arabia
said it was ending a two-and-a-half-week-old cease-fire in Yemen that
had never really taken hold.
Saudi
Arabia launched a military campaign in Yemen almost 10 months ago,
largely driven by fears that Iran was supporting the Houthi rebels who
had driven the Yemeni government from power and sought to turn them into
a proxy military force on the kingdom’s southern border.
But
Western diplomats say the Saudis vastly overstated the Iranian role, at
least at the war’s start. Nonetheless, a Saudi Arabia-led military
coalition, backed by the United States, has killed thousands of
civilians in airstrikes. The Houthis remain in control of large parts of
the country, and the Saudi-led coalition has struggled to secure the
areas it has managed to capture.
Peace
talks held in Switzerland last month ended in failure, and there is
little hope that a second scheduled to begin next week will deliver a
better result.
Correction: January 3, 2016
Because of an editing error, an earlier version of a picture
caption with this article misidentified the member of the Saudi royalty
whose picture was being burned. He is Prince Sultan, not his brother
King Salman.
Kareem Fahim contributed reporting from Cairo, David E. Sanger from Washington, and Thomas Erdbrink from Tehran.
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