KABUL: (MEP) The Saudi Embassy was gripped by a group of protesters gathered outside the embassy in Washington, DC criticizing the execution of prominent Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr by Riyadh on Saturday, 2nd January.
The angry demonstrators chanted slogans against Saudi Arabia, likening the Riyadh regime to the (ISIL) terrorist group.
“Down, down Al Saud,” the protesters shouted.
“We are calling on Saudi Arabia to end its barbaric form of capital punishment… we also want our own government to stop business with Saudi Arabia,” a protester told Press TV.
“Because we are perpetuating their ongoing violations of human rights whether it is imprison
ing bloggers, or other political activists, or raining down a war of aggression on the people of Yemen,” she added. “It’s time to reevaluate the US-Saudi alliance.”
Saudi Arabia has triggered international outrage and a serious escalation of diplomatic tensions in the region over its Saturday’s crime of executing of Sheikh Nimr along with 46 others.
Sheikh Nimr, a critic of the Riyadh regime, was shot by Saudi police and arrested in 2012 in Qatif, which was the scene of peaceful anti-regime demonstrations at the time.
US officials have privately acknowledged that Saudi Arabia’s mass executions and other human rights abuses, including reported widespread civilian casualties from its military intervention in Yemen, have raised difficult diplomatic issues.
The US government, however, refused to issue a strong denunciation of the Nimr’s execution. Washington was also silent during the cleric’s years-long imprisonment.
