The execution in Saudi Arabia of a prominent Shia cleric on Saturday sparked outrage in Iraq, where some leaders called for the closure of Riyadh’s newly reopened embassy in Baghdad. Nimr al-Nimr, a driving force of the protests that broke out in 2011 in the Sunni-ruled kingdom’s east, was among 47 people executed in Saudi Arabia.
Khalaf Abdelsamad, who heads the parliamentary bloc of Iraq’s Shiite Dawa party —to which both Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and his predecessor Nuri al-Maliki belong — said Baghdad should take action. “Abdelsamad urges the Iraqi Government to close down the Saudi embassy, expel the ambassador and execute all Saudi terrorists in Iraqi prisons,” a statement from his office said.
The Saudi embassy in Baghdad only just reopened on December 15, a quarter of a century after relations were broken over Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait. The ambassador himself has only been in the country three days.
A justice ministry spokesman said 61 Saudi nationals were detained in Iraqi prisons six months ago. He could not immediately provide a more recent figure.