Saudi ArabiaÁ !

Saudi Arabia's announcement last weekend that it had executed 47 people for terrorism, including a leading Shia cleric - and the furious response from the Shia community, led by Iran - had an immediate and dramatic impact on a region already riven by war and ideological division. And it has left the international community floundering as it tries to respond to conflicts spilling across the globe.

But what are the longer-term consequences for the Middle East and beyond? And how will capitals from Washington to London to Moscow respond to the actions of their allies in the region? The escalating tensions between Riyadh and Tehran have cast a long shadow over hopes for stability in the Middle East, and in the short term will pile yet morÄ™ misery on those least able to bear it, the battered civilians of Yemen and Syria.