Nimr’s execution shows Saudi regime on its last legs: Analyst

The recent execution of Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr Baqir al-Nimr is a desperate move which shows that the Saudi Arabian regime is on its last legs, a US counter-terrorism analyst says.

Scott Bennet, a former US army psychological warfare officer, made the remarks in a phone interview with Press TV on Tuesday while commenting on a statement by the Obama administration.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said on Monday the administration had previously warned Saudi Arabia about damaging consequences that would follow the execution of Sheikh Nimr.

"There have been direct concerns raised by US officials to Saudi officials about the potential damaging consequences of following through on the execution, on mass executions, in particular, the execution of" Nimr, Earnest said.

However, defying all warnings, the Saudi Interior Ministry announced on Sunday that Sheikh Nimr, a critic of the Riyadh regime, has been put to death along with 46 others on charges of “terrorism” and adopting a “Takfiri” ideology.

Bennet said the execution “is an indication of really that the Saudi Arabian regime is in its last-gasp of desperation.”

“The Saudi Arabian House of Saud, Salafist/Wahhabist regime is really on its last legs, and it appears to be a desperate clutch to try and pull the US into rescuing it out of its inevitable, I think, soon toppling, because this action alone is one of the most outrageous, despicable violations of the human rights that anybody can possibly imagine,” he added.

“And it’s so sickening that the president of the United States and the Congress sat by and allowed for basically what amounts to the killing of a Shia cleric because of his denomination, and because of his separate identity as a Shia versus the Wahhabist ruling establishment,” he stated.

Bennet reiterated that Sheikh Nimr’s execution “shows the desperation of the Saudi Arabians. It shows that they are frantic, and they are emotionally hysterical, and they are out of control when it comes to managing their diplomacy and their reason.”

“They are basically rushing ahead and lashing and behaving so radically that it defies all reason,” he stated.

“It is an indicator that they’ve realized that the tide has turned in the Syrian conflict and Russia’s rescue of [President Bashar] Assad and [his government’s] alliance with Iran and China’s entry into the alliance with Iran and Russia really is turning the tide against the Wahhabist mentality and the European countries,” the analyst noted. 

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk