Iraq dispatched its foreign minister to Tehran on Wednesday with an offer to mediate in an escalating feud between Saudi Arabia and Iran after Sunni Saudi Arabia executed Shi'ite Nimr al-Nimr because he complained that Shi'ites were marginalised and called for the overthrow of the Saudi royal family. Nimr’s execution infuriated Iran, the region's main Shi'ite Muslim power and inflamed sectarian anger to rise higher across the Middle East. Demonstrators sacked the Saudi embassy in Iran, and Shi’ite countries cut off diplomatic ties with Iran. Sunni-led Saudi Arabia and Shi'ite-led Iran have been fighting proxy wars in the region for generations. The Saudis have led a coalition of Shi'ite Houthi rebels in Yemen, resulting in devastation and starvation (see above). Shi'ite Iran backs Syria's President Assad against the Sunni rebels in that country's five-year civil war. Saudi Arabia is number 12, and Iran number 7 on the World Watch List of the worst persecutors of Christians.