Saudi summons Iran envoy over aggressive statement

Saudi Arabia summoned Iran’s envoy to protest an “aggressive” statement by Tehran on the Saturday execution of prominent Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr, the  Foreign Ministry said.

The Ministry “handed the Iranian Ambassador... a stern protest letter over the aggressive Iranian statements on the legal sentences carried out today against terrorists in the Kingdom,” said a statement published by the official SPA news agency. 

Riyadh expressed its “complete rejection of these aggressive statements, which it considers a flagrant interference in the Kingdom’s affairs”.

It also held the “Iranian government completely responsible for protecting” the kingdom’s missions in Iran and all their employees from any “aggressive acts”.

Nimr al-Nimr, who spent more than a decade studying theology in Iran ,was among a group of 47 Shiites and Sunnis executed Saturday for “terrorism”. 

Iran said in reaction to Nimr’s execution that “the Saudi Government supports terrorist movements and extremists, but confronts domestic critics with oppression and execution.”

It will “pay a high price for following these policies,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossein Jaber Ansari.

Nimr had been the driving force behind Shiite-led anti-government protests in Saudi Arabia since 2011.