It is hard to see how Saudi Arabia’s New Year execution spree will send the signal it presumably intended: that of an absolute monarchy on which the sun will never set, laying down the law on its own terms with a sanguinary warning to would-be predators at home and abroad. It looks, instead, like a defensive message that injects yet more sectarian venom into the cauldron of the Middle East. That poison is not something the House of Saud or the Wahhabi clerical establishment that legitimises it can control, as the Sunni-Shia conflict they help incite keeps ripping the region apart.
很難看出沙烏地阿拉伯在新年之際的一通處決如何能夠釋放其可能想要釋放的信號：這樣一個日不落君主專制國家，按自己的方式制定律法，對國內外想要倚強凌弱的人發出血腥的警告。相反，這看起來像是一種防禦性訊息，給中東的大鍋裏注入了更多宗派主義的毒液。這種毒不是沙烏地王室或賦予其執政合法性的瓦哈比(Wahhabi)宗教當權派能夠控制的，他們煽動的遜尼派與什葉派的鬥爭不斷地撕裂著這個地區。