AKIPRESS.COM - In an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer on Tuesday, Saudi Arabia's foreign minister expressed cautious optimism about the Iran nuclear deal and defended his country's execution of a Shiite cleric beloved by Iran.

Tension between the countries has been pointed for a long time, but events lately -- including Nimr al-Nimr's execution -- have strained that relationship even further.

"Nimr al-Nimr is a terrorist, not a religious scholar," Adel al-Jubeir told Blitzer. Speaking with some sarcasm, Jubeir added, "He's as much of a religious scholar as" Osama bin Laden was. Nimr "recruited, justified, funded, equipped, plotted, and he engaged in terror attacks that left a number of security personnel dead."

Nimr was a fervent dissident against the Sunni Muslim Saudi royal family, and called for deposing them during the Arab Spring uprisings in 2011. On the night Nimr was executed in Saudi Arabia, in predominantly Shia Iran, Molotov cocktails smashed into the Saudi embassy in Tehran. Protesters shouted as it caught fire. Some went inside and ransacked offices.

The next day, Jubeir said his country was severing ties with Iran. Blitzer asked Jubeir about the Iran nuclear deal negotiated with the United States.

"You told me Saudi Arabia wouldn't rule out the possibility of acquiring a nuclear bomb?" Blitzer said. The foreign minister answered by saying he wouldn't speak publicly about that. "Saudi Arabia will do whatever it takes to protect the nation and people from any harm and I will leave it at that," he replied.

Asked about how his country felt about the Iran nuclear deal, he said there was "a lot of misinformation" concerning how Saudi Arabian officials felt about it.

He said Saudi Arabia is worried Iran "will support terrorism and instability in the region." "We don't have confidence in Iran," he said, "We have confidence in the United States."