On the same day, the Saudi embassy in Tehran was stormed by an angry crowd and partly set on fire. The Supreme Leader of Iran , Ali Khamene'i , threatened the Saudi Arabian leadership for “the unjustly shed blood of this martyr very soon” with consequences and “God's vengeance”. As a result, Saudi Arabia broke off diplomatic relations with Iran on January 3, 2016. All Iranian diplomats were asked to leave the country within 48 hours. The United Arab Emirates withdrew parts of their diplomatic representation in Iran - especially their ambassador. On January 4th, Bahrain and Sudan followed suit .
Massive criticism of the mass execution, the largest in Saudi Arabia since 1979, has also been voiced by Western governments and non-governmental organizations. The mass execution on January 2, 2016 was the start of a series of further executions, with at least 23 other people executed by the end of March. Three teenagers have been on death row since last year - Ali al-Nimr, Dawood al-Marhoon and Abdullah al-Zaher - and it is not known whether they have already been executed. Ali al-Nimr is the nephew of Nimr al-Nimr , who was executed earlier this year.
Salah bin Saeed bin Abdulraheem Al-Najjar ( Arabic صلاح بن سعيد بن عبدالرحيم النجار Ṣalāḥ bin Saʿīd bin ʿAbd ar-Raḥīm an-Najār )
Salah bin Abdulrahman bin Mohammed Al Hussain ( Arabic صلاح بن عبدالرحمن بن محمد آل حسين Ṣalāḥ bin ʿAbd ar-Raḥmān bin Muḥammad Āl Ḥusain )
Saleh bin Abdulrahman bin Ibrahim Al-Shamsan ( Arabic صالح بن عبدالرحمن بن إبراهيم الشمسان Ṣalāḥ bin ʿAbd ar-Raḥmān bin Ibrahīm asch-Shamsān )
Saleh bin Ali bin Saleh Al-Juma'ah ( Arabic صالح بن علي بن صالح الجمعة Ṣāliḥ bin ʿAlī bin Ṣāliḥ al-Jumʿa )
Adel bin Saad bin Jaza 'Al-Dhubaiti ( Arabic عادل بن سعد بن جزاء الضبيطي ʿĀdil bin Saʿd bin Jazaʾ aḍ-Ḍubaiṭī )
Adel Mohammed Salem Abdullah Yamani ( Arabic عادل محمد سالم عبدالله يماني ʿĀdil Muḥammad Sālim ʿAbdullāh Yamānī )
Abduljabbar bin Homood bin Abdulaziz Al-Tuwaijri ( Arabic عبدالجبار بن حمود بن عبدالعزيز التويجري ʿAbd al-Jabbar bin Ḥumūd bin ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz at-Tuwaidschirī )
With the exception of the Egyptian Mohammed Fathi Abula'ti Al-Sayed (39) and Mostafa Mohammed Altaher Abkam (41), a citizen of Chad , all those executed were Saudi citizens.