Nimr's execution may compound Saudi Arabia's problems | World news | The Guardian:
"Saudi Arabia’s decision to execute the Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr on 2 January may have been accompanied by a wish to bury bad news. It doesn’t take a PR genius to work out that the western world shuts down for the new year holiday.
But if the Saudis were hoping the timing would mean no one would notice they were badly mistaken. The execution has worsened the kingdom’s already hostile relationship with Iran, turning the Nimr case into one that dangerously combines both state and sectarian rivalry – writ large across the Middle East in proxy wars in Syria and Yemen and tensions in Lebanon and Iraq.
The Saudi system is opaque in the extreme. Still, Riyadh had made it clear since at least November that it intended to mete out the death penalty to the high-profile figure who championed the country’s downtrodden Shia minority – as well as to 43 Sunni Muslims convicted of terrorist attacks."
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