ERBIL, Kurdistan Region—Tehran has strongly condemned the execution of prominent Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimir al- Nimrits by Saudi Arabia on Saturday, saying Riyadh will pay "a high price". "The execution of a man like Sheikh al-Nimr who had no tool but preaching his ideas to promote his political and religious objectives, proves nothing but the depth of irrationality and irresponsibility of the Saudi officials,” Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hossein Jaber Ansari said, as quoted by IRNA news agency. Sheikh Nimir, 56, was charged with sedition by Riyadh after he called for the separation of the Shiite-populated provinces of Qatif and al-Ihsaa from Saudi Arabia in 2009. Tehran warned Riyadh of dire consequences last October when the Saudi Supreme Court sentenced the Shiite cleric to death. "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," Ansari said. Iranian MPs also responded harshly to the cleric’s hanging, calling Saudi Arabia an “absolute dictatorship.” “The execution of Sheikh Nimr and scores of others by the Al Saud government once again showed that there is nothing called freedom and respect for scholars and thinkers in Saudi Arabia, and there is essentially absolute dictatorship in the country,” Press TV quoted head of Iran’s parliamentary national security and foreign policy committee Alaeddin Boroujerdi as saying. The Saudi government announced on Saturday that it had executed 47 people on charges of terrorism, among them members of the al-Qaeda on the country’s ‘most wanted’ list. Iranian media reported that university students have scheduled demonstrations outside the Saudi Embassy in Tehran on Sunday.
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