(CNN) 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."CNN's Wolf Blitzer interviews Adel al-Jubeir on TuesdayJubeir calls executed controversial cleric a "terrorist"
"_ will do whatever it takes to protect the nation and people from any harm and I will leave it at that," he replied. Jubeir repeated those thoughts to Blitzer, saying, "This is about a country [_]" that has been aggressive and has demonstrated no inhibitions in using terrorism. Blitzer noted that ISIS is widely criticized for beheading its enemies, but _ also beheads people.