On 2 January 2016, Saudi Arabia executed forty-seven people, including prominent dissident Shia cleric Nimr al-Nimr. Soon after the executions, organized mobs attacked the Saudi diplomatic missions in Tehran and the northeastern city of Mash-had. The tension between the two countries reached its paroxysm when Saudi Arabia severed all diplomatic and commercial ties with Iran.
In his new piece in the Intercept, Lee Fang writes that a well-funded Saudi public relations apparatus moved in quickly to shape how it was being covered in the United States. Malihe Razazan spoke to Fang about the backstory behind his article as well as the media campaign to varnish Saudi Arabia's image in the American press.
[Graphics: The Intercept]