SAUDIS CUT TIES WITH TEHRAN

The Mideast power brokers’ break follows the execution of a Shiite Muslim cleric.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Saudi Arabia severed diplomatic relations with Iran on Sunday, one day after the execution of an important Shiite Muslim cleric sparked a war of words between the two regional rivals.

Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Adel Jubeir, in a televised address on state television, declared the kingdom’s “dissolution of relations with Iran,” adding that the Iranian government had 48 hours to shut down its offices and remove all of its diplomats from the country.

Saudi broadcaster Al Arabiya reported that members of the Saudi diplomatic mission in Iran landed in Dubai late Sunday after being recalled from their posts.

The break came as the two countries — which have grappled for regional leader-

ship for years — engaged in increasingly angry rhetoric over the Saudi execution of Shiite cleric Sheik Nimr alNimr.

Saudi Arabia announced Al-Nimr’s death Saturday as part of a mass execution of 47 people on terrorism-related charges — the country’s largest such execution since 1980. Most of those executed had been implicated in Al Qaeda attacks against the Saudi government.

Al-Nimr was executed along with three other Shiite dissidents from Saudi Arabia’s Shiite-dominated eastern Qatif region.

The execution enraged Iranians and provoked a stern response from Iran’s government.

Saudi Arabia, in turn, was angered when protesters stormed its embassy in Tehran, hurling Molotov cocktails, on Saturday night and early Sunday. Eventually, security forces pushed them back and arrested about 40 people, said Iranian Deputy Interior Minister Hossein Zolfaqari.

The Saudi Consulate in the city of Mashhad was also attacked.

Jubeir blamed Iran for what he described as “a blatant violation of international charters” because its leaders had engaged in “rhetoric that incited the attacks.”

“Iran has a long record in attacking foreign diplomatic missions,” said Jubeir, in an apparent reference to the 1979 storming of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran by Iranian students.

Over the last two days, relations between the two countries deteriorated, with opposing leaders hurling insults at one another.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, said in a religious speech Sunday that “divine vengeance will befall Saudi politicians.” He described Al-Nimr as an “innocent martyr,” a scholar whose only crime was “open criticism” of the Saudi government.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, according to the Associated Press, described the execution as a “medieval act of savagery” and compared the Saudi government to Islamic State.

Saudi Arabia said the prisoners executed Saturday were put to death either by beheading with a sword or by firing squad; it did not specify which method was used with each individual.

It denounced Iran as a “blindly sectarian” supporter of terrorism, adding that Iran has executed hundreds of its own people “without clear legal proof,” according to a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency.

Protesters gathered in Tehran again Sunday to protest the execution, despite a heavy police presence and condemnation by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who criticized the previous day’s protests for damaging the nation’s reputation.

He called on Iranian officials to “guarantee the safety and security of Saudi Arabian diplomats” in the country.

Although Sunday’s protest was less violent, hundreds came to denounce the execution, shouting slogans demanding the closure of the “Wahhabi embassy,” a reference to the harsh form of Sunni Islam adopted by Saudi rulers.

“The Sunni Wahhabi regime is fighting against us and we should react accordingly,” said Ali Hosseinipour, a 31-year-old graduate student who attended the protest.

Sunday’s protest lasted for nearly two hours. Eventually, security forces urged demonstrators to leave the scene and head toward Palestine Square, where a lessviolent protest called for by the government was staged.

Authorities, meanwhile, renamed the street on which the Saudi Embassy stands in honor of “Martyr Nimr Baqir Nimr.”

Regional reactions to the execution mirrored regional loyalties, which have been sharpened in the last few years by the conf lict in Syria.

The government of Syrian President Bashar Assad has been engaged in a civil war against opposition rebels. Iran supports Assad, a member of the Alawites, a Shiite offshoot sect. Saudi Arabia is a benefactor to some of the rebels, whose ranks are dominated by Sunnis.

Hassan Nasrallah, head of the Shiite militant group Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran, delivered a broadside against Saudi Arabia, saying in a televised speech that Al-Nimr’s execution “shows the real oppressive, terrorist, and criminal face of the Saudi regime.”

The governments of Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, Bahrain, Yemen and Kuwait officially condemned the assault on the Saudi Embassy in Iran, while the United Arab Emirates summoned the Iranian ambassador in Abu Dhabi to complain about Iran’s “interference in Saudi internal matters.”

Shiite Muslims make up 10% to 15% of the Saudi population, found mostly in its oil-rich Eastern province. They have long sought a greater role in the country’s governance, and complain of systematic discrimination.

Al-Nimr was a frequent critic of the Saudi government who, according to a 2008 U.S. diplomatic cable, said in a meeting with U.S. officials in Saudi Arabia that he would “side with the people” in a conflict, “never with the government.”

In the same meeting, he added that he would not endorse violence — a position that remained largely unchanged throughout his confrontations with the Saudi government. He also insisted he had no connections with Tehran, despite accusations to the contrary by Saudi authorities.

In 2012, Al-Nimr was shot and arrested by police, triggering protests in Qatif that left three Shiites dead. AlNimr’s nephew was also arrested and sentenced to death, but that punishment has yet to be carried out.

He was handed a “discretionary” death sentence in October 2014. Observers, however, did not expect the verdict to be carried out; in the past, Saudi rulers have often shown leniency toward political prisoners.

However, the new Saudi king, Salman, who was crowned last January after the death of his half-brother, King Abdullah, has taken a more heavy-handed approach, according to F. Gregory Gause, professor at the Bush School of Government at Texas A&M University.

Gause said that Nimr’s execution, along with those of accused Al Qaeda members, who are Sunni, was aimed at mollifying the kingdom’s Sunni critics by saying, “We’re not just picking on you.”

Special correspondents Bulos reported from Dubai and Mostaghim from Tehran, respectively. Special correspondent Amro Hassan in Cairo contributed to this report.