Tension escalates in Middle East after the execution of Shia cleric Nimr al-Nimr

The decision of Saudi Arabia to execute Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr on Saturday along with 46 others accused of terrorism and participation in al-Qaida terrorist group escalates the tension in Middle East with Iran, Iraq and Lebanon warning of “divine revenge”.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei condemned the execution stating on his website that al-Nimr “neither invited people to take up arms nor hatched covert plots. The only thing he did was public criticism.”

On Sunday, Iraq’s top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, called al-Nimr a martyr and said his blood and that of other Shiite protesters “was unjustly and aggressively shed”, while hundreds of al-Nimr’s supporters protested in his hometown of al-Qatif in eastern Saudi Arabia, with police firing tear gas and bird shot.