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Obama blamed for failing to prevent Shiite cleric's death
 [Michael Isakoff] The brother of a prominent Shiite cleric whose execution has roiled the Mideast and set off worldwide protests is blaming President Obama for failing to use his influence with the Saudi government to prevent his death.
"We asked very clearly for the American president to intervene as a friend of Saudi Arabia -- and the Americans did not intervene," he added. While he personally asked officials at the U.S. consulate in Dharan, Saudi Arabia, to urge the president to speak out forcefully against his brother's death sentence, "the Americans did not issue such a statement," al-Nimr said in a telephone interview from Awamya in eastern Saudi Arabia. "They limited themselves to general statements from the State Department." The question of how forcefully the Obama administration raised the treatment of Sheik al-Nimr with the Saudi government -- and whether it was caught flat-footed by the intense response in the region -- got new attention Monday, a day after protestors stormed the Saudi Embassy in Tehran over the execution, and Saudi Arabia cut off relations with Iran in response. Iran is the leading Shiite power and views itself as the protector of Shiite interests in the Mideast. The issue also made its way to the presidential campaign trail where Hillary Clinton -- whose former top legislative aide at the State Department is now a lobbyist for Saudi Arabia -- mildly criticized the execution of al-Nimr, one of 47 prisoners who were put to death, mostly by beheading, by the Saudis over the weekend. Posted by: Besoeker 2016-01-05 |
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| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=441006 |