On Oct. 15, Sheikh Nimr Bagher al-Nimr, a dissident Saudi Shiite cleric, was sentenced to death for sedition. The death sentence, which has the potential to further inflame sectarian tensions in the Middle East, has put the Hassan Rouhani administration on the defensive domestically. Rouhani, who with Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has been lobbying for closer ties with Saudi Arabia, must face down conservative figures who have adopted a harsher tone against Saudi Arabia and are not looking toward a détente with the regional rival.
When Nimr’s death sentence was announced, it was harshly condemned by a number of conservative religious clerics in Iran. Ayatollah Jafar Sobhani said, "Saudi princes should not assume that the protests will come to an end with the execution of Sheikh Nimr." Ayatollah Mohammad Alavi Gorgani said, “It is unfortunate that the Saudi regime is treating its citizens with hostility instead of giving them justice." Ayatollah Hossein Nuri-Hamadani warned the Saudi officials that such sentences will upset Shiites around the world, and Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi also warned that such actions would have "unpredictable results."
Ayatollah Safi Golpaygani met with Rouhani's chief of staff, Mohammad Nahavandian, and asked the administration to work toward revoking this sentence. "Our foreign minister, [Mohammad Javad] Zarif, should act upon this matter immediately,” he said. “He should remind the Saudi government that this sentence has hurt the feelings of Muslims and Muslim clerics alike, and he should also remind them that such cruel actions will have consequences."
Rouhani, Zarif and Marzieh Afkham, the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, have yet to officially address this issue. However, Hossein-Amir Abdollahian, the deputy foreign minister in charge of Arab and African relations told ISNA news agency, "We are hopeful that the Saudi officials will be pragmatic about this issue and, by preventing this sentence from being carried out, prevent tension from further escalating in the Muslim world."
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