News / Russia

Saudi Arabia seeks to form coalition against Shia Muslims: Russian lawmaker

Monday, 04 January 2016 10:31 AM [ Last Update: Monday, 04 January 2016 10:31 AM ]

Alexei Pushkov, the head of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the lower house of Russia’s Parliament

A Russian lawmaker says Saudi Arabia’s execution of prominent Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr indicates that Riyadh has been trying to launch a ‘coalition against Shia Muslims.’

“The sensational execution in Saudi Arabia has demonstrated that it is trying to create… an anti-Shia coalition,” said head of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the lower house of Russia’s Parliament, Alexei Pushkov.

On Saturday, the Saudi Interior Ministry announced that Sheikh Nimr had been put to death along with 46 others convicted of being involved in “terrorism.”

A Saudi court had sentenced him to death in 2014.

Iranians protest Saudi Arabia’s execution of Shia cleric Nimr al-Nimr outside the Saudi embassy in Tehran, January 3, 2016. (Photo by AFP)

Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani, who condemned Saudi Arabia’s “non-Islamic and inhuman” act of executing Sheikh Nimr, has said the move was in line with Riyadh’s sectarian policies.

“Such a measure is in line with sectarian policies and aims to spread terrorism and extremism in the region and across the world, which have destabilized the region and waged war and conflicts in recent years,” Rouhani said on Sunday.

Senior Iranian cleric Ayatollah Nasser Makarem-Shirazi also said the Saudi “crime” is in line with “creating a sectarian war between Sunnis and Shias.”

The execution also saw condemnations from Iraq and the UN. Muslims and human rights activists all over the world also protested Nimr’s killing.

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