Are THESE two countries on the verge of starting WW3?On Saturday, Saudi Arabia carried out its largest series of executions since 1980, putting 47 men to death either by beheading or firing squad.
The Daily Mail reports “The latest men executed were different from the minor drug traffickers, foreign servants who have killed an employer, or ‘sorcerers’ and ‘witches’ who make up the usual cast of victims.For sure, they included several al-Qaida terrorists, among them bearded ideologue Fares al-Shuwail, and Adel al-Dhubaiti, who in 2004 murdered BBC cameraman Simon Cumbers and left reporter Frank Gardner for dead. Few will mourn either of them.
But the Saudis took the opportunity to add in four individuals from the Shia sect of Islam – a minority in Saudi Arabia which is predominantly of the Sunni faith – including the prominent dissident cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr.”
The executions sparked protests among Shiites in the Middle East, with Iranians storming and setting fire to Saudi Arabia’s embassy in Iran.
As AFP reported, Iran’s leaders were not best pleased either:
Iran’s supreme leader warned Sunday that Saudi Arabia would face “divine revenge” for deciding to execute a Shiite cleric, calling the killing a mistake which would “haunt” the kingdom’s politicians.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was joined in his condemnation of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr’s death by neighbouring Iraq’s top Shiite authority, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who described the death sentence as an unjust act of aggression.
But Khamenei, in a speech to clerics in Tehran, said the killing would not go unanswered.
“The unjustly spilt blood of this martyr will have quick consequences,” he said.
“God will not forgive. This scholar neither encouraged people into armed action nor secretly conspired for plots but the only thing he did was utter public criticism rising from his religious zeal.”
Now you might be reading this and thinking, so what? Do we care if they’re fighting each other? The problem is, it’s not just Muslim against Muslim, but nation against nation. And the world is in the habit of taking sides.
As Rich Galen writes, “The last two World Wars started when a couple of countries got into it and everyone else began to choose up sides.The Iranians (Shiites) are on the opposite side of the Syrian civil war from the Saudis (Sunnis). They are also supporting opposite sides in Yemen.”
Add to that toxic mess Russia…
Read More: Are THESE two countries on the verge of starting WW3? – Allen B. West – AllenBWest.com
Join the conversation!
We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, vulgarity, profanity, all caps, or discourteous behavior. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain a courteous and useful public environment where we can engage in reasonable discourse.