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Tehran (AFP) - Saudi Arabia's execution Saturday of a prominent Shiite cleric and 46 other men prompted outrage in parts of the Middle East, with Iran warning Riyadh would pay a "high price".
But several Saudi allies offered their support after Riyadh implemented death sentences against Nimr al-Nimr, Shiite activists and Sunnis accused of involvement in Al-Qaeda attacks.
Iran's foreign ministry spokesman Hossein Jaber Ansari strongly condemned Nimr's execution despite repeated Iranian requests for clemency.
"The Saudi government supports terrorist movements and extremists, but confronts domestic critics with oppression and execution... the Saudi government will pay a high price for following these policies," he said, quoted by the official IRNA news agency.
"The execution of a figure like Sheikh al-Nimr, who had no means to follow his political and religious goals but through speaking out, merely shows the extent of irresponsibility and imprudence," said Ansari.
Parliament speaker Ali Larijani also condemned Nimr's death, saying Riyadh would not emerge "easily from the quagmire they created by the martyrdom of this great sheikh".
All Iran's seminaries will be closed Sunday to protest Nimr's execution, with a demonstration expected in the Grand Mosque of Qom, the heart of Shiite faith in Iran, the ISNA news agency said.
And the Basij student militia connected to Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards called for a demonstration on Sunday afternoon in front of the Saudi embassy in Tehran.
Shiite Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia are major rivals in the Middle East and are arrayed on opposing sides in several regional conflicts.
Nimr, 56, was a driving force of the protests that broke out in 2011 in Eastern Province, where the Shiite minority of Saudi Arabia complains of marginalisation.
He was arrested in 2012, with the interior ministry describing him as an "instigator of sedition".
- 'Serious consequences' -
His execution also drew fire in Iraq, where the head of the Shiite Dawa party's parliamentary bloc urged Baghdad to close the Saudi embassy, expel the ambassador and "execute all Saudi terrorists in Iraqi prisons."
Khalaf Abdelsamad also warned the execution would have "serious consequences and bring about the end of the Al-Saud (ruling family's) rule."
Iraq's Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and his predecessor Nuri al-Maliki both belong to the Dawa party.
In Lebanon, the powerful Shiite movement Hezbollah accused Riyadh of "assassinating" Nimr on the basis of "false pretenses, corrupt rulings, empty allegations and perverted logic."
The Tehran ally also urged the international community to condemn Nimr's execution.
And it accused Washington of "direct and moral responsibility for this crime" because of its longstanding alliance with Riyadh.
The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, members of a Saudi-led coalition battling Iran-backed Shiite rebels in Yemen, praised the executions.
UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan called the executions a "clear message against terrorism and those who call for and incite sedition and unrest to tear apart the society’s unity and threaten social peace in the kingdom".
Bahrain, which has itself faced unrest from its Shiite majority population, also backed Riyadh in "all deterrent and needed measures it takes to confront violence and extremism".
In the surburbs of the capital Manama however, dozens of Shiite youth gathered for small demonstrations to condemn the executions.
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