Former Iraqi Prime Minister, Nuri al-Maliki
The Independent: Nimr al-Nimr execution: Former Iraq PM al-Maliki says death will 'topple Saudi regime'
Elsewhere, demonstrators carrying pictures of the Shi’ite cleric were involved in a clash with police in the Bahraini village of Abu-Saiba.
The former prime minister of Iraq, Nuri al-Maliki, has said that the execution of the prominent Shi'ite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr by Saudi Arabia will be the downfall of the Gulf kingdom's government.
Mr al-Maliki, who was prime minister of Iraq between 2006 and 2014, said in a statement that his countrymen "strongly condemn these detestable sectarian practices and affirm that the crime of executing Sheikh al-Nimr will topple the Saudi regime as the crime of executing the martyr al-Sadr did to Saddam," referencing the death of another prominent cleric in Iraq in 1980.
Hundreds of armoured vehicles were sent to Qatif in Saudi Arabia to contain protests in response to the execution, while demonstrators in Bahrain have been tear-gassed.
Update: Nimr al-Nimr execution: Iranian cleric says death penalty will bring down Saudi Arabia's ruling family (The Independent)
WNU Editor: These Shiite politicians and clerics are hoping that the House of Saud will be toppled .... but I doubt this will happen. What will happen will be more sectarian tensions, and the sectarian wars that are now raging in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen to only intensify.
The House of Saud is a close ally of the U.S. ....Obama met the new hawkish king twice last year, once in Riyadh and once in Washington. So Riyadh and Washington are in sync within the Turkey-US-Israel-Saudi coalition, against Syria and Iran in the Middle East.
ReplyDeleteBut KSA is taking a beating from the Houthis in Yemen, who occupy some Saudi territory, and Iran has sympathetic friends in KSA's largest province, the Eastern Province, where the oil is, just across the Gulf from Iran. Also Bahrain, home of the US Fifth fleet, is 70% Shia. So the 50,000 US troops stationed around the western Gulf may not be a factor, as Iran is now fully in the game with this latest provocation.
Looks like Maliki, whom H. Clinton spoke against years ago, and who was eased out of office by the US in 2014, is making a comeback at least as Iraq's chief spokesman. He wasn't conciliatory enough for the US -- and now this.
ReplyDeleteMaliki achievement in quelling the uprising in Basra was brave and remarkable.
ReplyDeleteThe american general thought Maliki was going to die or get his ass handed to him.
Other than that IMHO everything Maliki has done has been wrong and narrow mindedly sectarian.
If Maliki or the Iraqi Shia are going to be that way, screw air support. Let Iran and the Shia lose people.
After Maliki a 3 state solution is a foregone conclusion. We did not hold elections and bleed for him to f_ck it up that badly.