How Qatar, Iran and Iraq conspired against KSA?

CAIRO - 18 July 2017: Qatar, Iran and Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces were claimed to make a plot against The Saudi Arabia government through the fabrication of Kidnapping 24 Qatari hunters along with two others, Saudi and Pakistani, from the Iraqi desert nearby the Saudi boarders according to Al Riyadh Saudi newspaper Tuesday.

A leaked document revealed that the conspiracy origin goes back to January 2016, when the Saudi government announced its intentions to execute 47 people after convicting them on terrorism charges including Shiite opposition member Nimr Al-Nimr.

The conspiracy; however aimed to put the Saudi government under pressure and use the Kidnapping of the 26 Hunters case as a prisoner exchange deal, so the Iraqi militants (who were secretly agreeing with Iran and Qatar) would release them in the exchange of releasing Al-Nimr.

The whole conspiracy was not convincing to the Saudi government according to the Saudi owned newspaper Al-Riyadh, as the execution of Al-Nimr took place shortly after the kidnapping case.

The 26 hunters remained in prison after that for nearly 16 months, later they were announced released without announcing much information regarding the diplomatic efforts. According to DW April 2017, A Qatari diplomatic delegate received them officially during a visit to Baghdad.

“The kidnapping goal was never money or anything else; it was to push Saudi Arabia not to execute Al-Nimr; however the Saudi government didn’t believe the plot,” the Saudi report stated.

In its statement released after the execution of Al-Nimr, January 2017, Saudi Arabia said that the execution of 47 people convicted on terrorism charges came after the excessive investigations that proved they were involved in a number of terrorist attacks planed by Al-Qaeda and took place inside the kingdom between the periods of 2003 till 2006.

Earlier Iran issued a formal warning regarding the execution of Al-Nimr; “It will cost the Saudi government a lot” Assistant Iranian Foreign Minister for Arab and African Affairs Hussein Amir Abdullahian told media outlets October 2015.

Al-Nimr was one of the most dangerous Shiite opposition member for the Saudi government. According to BBC he was one of the protestors who demanded ending the marginalization of Shiites inside Saudi Arabia, especially in the eastern area in 2011.

Al-Nimr was known with his sharp speeches against the Saudi regime; as he was investigated more than once by the Saudi police and convicted of “stirring sedition” and “calling external intervention inside the kingdom.”

Iran known of being Shiite-majority country, as about 90-95 percent of Iranians are Shiites and 5-10 percent are Sunnis, also most of the Iranian leaders are known with their extremist thoughts especially after the Islamic revolution 1979, which ended the rule of Mohammad Reza Shah.