[LINK] "Saudi Executions That Riled Iran Meant as Domestic Message"

[rfmcdonald]

Bloomberg's Vivian Nereim describes how Saudi Arabia's recent executions, which have taken tensions with Iran to new heights, were apparently intended as messages to its domestic constituencies. How short-sighted.

Saudi Arabia’s execution of 47 men last weekend quickly became an international drama, agitating markets and triggering a flare-up with longtime rival Iran. But Saudi-watchers say the move was really meant to send a message inside the kingdom’s borders.

After a year of domestic attacks that left dozens dead, and with the economy hurting from the oil slump and a prolonged war in Yemen, the rulers of the world’s biggest oil exporter may be seeking to show the Saudi public that they’re tough on terrorism and won’t tolerate dissent. A large majority of those executed were Sunni Muslims said to be linked with al-Qaeda and implicated in attacks more than a decade ago, though it was the death of Shiite Muslim cleric Nimr al-Nimr that received the most overseas attention and spurred protesters in Shiite-ruled Iran to set the Saudi embassy on fire.

“It largely plays to a domestic audience,” said Toby Matthiesen, author of The Other Saudis, a study of the kingdom’s Shiite minority. “The executions, especially the one of al-Nimr, are very popular among a lot of Saudis,” he said. “It’s a way of kind of rallying people around the flag.”

Al-Nimr’s execution on Saturday and the subsequent breakdown in ties between Saudi Arabia and Iran raised the specter of deepening conflicts in a region where the two powers are already on opposing sides of wars in Syria and Yemen. Tensions have escalated as the administration of King Salman, who ascended to the Saudi throne almost a year ago after the death of his brother Abdullah, breaks with the kingdom’s traditionally cautious foreign policy.

The executions may be intended to reinforce Salman’s more assertive stance, said Robert Jordan, a former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia.