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.
很难看出沙特阿拉伯在新年之际的一通处决如何能够释放其可能想要释放的信号：这样一个日不落君主专制国家，按自己的方式制定律法，对国内外想要倚强凌弱的人发出血腥的警告。相反，这看起来像是一种防御性讯息，给中东的大锅里注入了更多宗派主义的毒液。这种毒不是沙特王室或赋予其执政合法性的瓦哈比(Wahhabi)宗教当权派能够控制的，他们煽动的逊尼派与什叶派的斗争不断地撕裂着这个地区。