Protesters in Iran, angered by the execution by Saudi Arabia of a prominent Shiite cleric, broke into the Saudi embassy in Tehran early Sunday, setting fires and throwing papers from the roof, Iranian media reported.
The semiofficial ISNA news agency said the country's top police
official, Gen. Hossein Sajedinia, rushed to the scene and police worked
to disperse the crowd outraged by the execution of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr.
Shiite leaders in Iran and other countries across the Middle East
swiftly condemned Riyadh and warned of sectarian backlash.
Saudi Arabia's execution Saturday of 47 prisoners, which also included
al-Qaida detainees, threatened to further enflame Sunni-Shiite tensions
in a regional struggle playing out between the Sunni kingdom and its foe
Iran, a predominantly Shiite nation.
While Saudi Arabia insisted the executions were part of a justified war
on terrorism, Iranian politicians warned that the Saudi monarchy would
pay a heavy price for the death of al-Nimr.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry summoned the Saudi envoy in Tehran to
protest, while the Saudi Foreign Ministry later said it had summoned
Iran's envoy to the kingdom to protest the critical Iranian reaction to
the sheikh's execution, saying it represented "blatant interference" in
its internal affairs.
In Tehran, the crowd gathered outside the Saudi embassy and chanted
anti-Saudi slogans. Some protesters threw stones and Molotov cocktails
at the embassy, setting off a fire in part of the building, Sajedinia
told the semi-official Tasnim news agency.
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