Saudi Arabia announced Sunday it was severing diplomatic relations with Shiite powerhouse Iran amid escalating tensions over the Sunni kingdom’s execution of a prominent Shiite cleric. The move came hours after protesters stormed and set fire to the Saudi Embassy in Tehran and followed harsh criticism by Iran’s top leader of the Saudis’ execution of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr.

Iranian diplomatic personnel were given 48 hours to leave the country and all Saudi diplomatic personnel in Iran had been called home. The mass execution of al-Nimr and 46 others — the largest carried out by Saudi Arabia in three and a half decades — laid bare the sectarian divisions gripping the region as demonstrators took to the streets from Bahrain to Pakistan in protest.

ABC’s Tom Rivers joined us from London to discuss.

http://audio.newstalkflorida.com/820/WakeUp/TomRivers010416.mp3

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