US thought Nimr's allegiances lay with Iran: Wikileaks
1/3/2016
Although top Shia cleric, executed on Saturday, downplayed his pro-Iran stance, cable shows US was less certain
The United States believed executed Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr's political allegiances conceivably lay with Iran despite his denials, a 2008 US diplomatic cable, leaked through Wikileaks, reveals.
On Saturday, setting of a firestorm of criticism from Iran to the UN, the Saudi government executed 56-year-old Nimr and 46 others, mostly people linked with al-Qaeda attacks in the kingdom in the 2000s, on terrorism charges.
Eight years earlier, a US official, described in a Wikileaks cable only as a political officer, met Nimr in the cleric's hometown of Awamiyah, in Saudi Arabia's eastern Qatif area.
During the wide-ranging conversation, Nimr - who according to the cable had recently delivered sermons and given interviews supporting Iran - sought to distance himself from the country, "saying that piety is only God alone, and that all nations act in their own interests".
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