It seems that Saudi Arabia may be allying with the lesser Satan, Israel. America is, of course, the Great Satan.
For decades Saudi Arabia has been an unspoken bad seed, a major state-sponsor of terror and the genesis of the Muslim Brotherhood. It’s been a toss-up as to who is really the No. 1 terror sponsor – the Iranian mullahs or the Saudi Wahhabists.
It’s been surmised by some experts that a major reason the Saudis fund and export terror is simple self-preservation. If we finance the radicals, they won’t turn on us. This is at least in part, as we may recall, why the kingdom funded al-Qaida when bin Laden was the head cheese. They literally funded him on the stipulation that he would not return to Saudi Arabia. This has served to keep the nation relatively stable, even when those around them were under siege. The radical Islamists chose not to bite off the hand that was feeding them.
But now it seems that it is none other than the Saudis who are feeling threatened – threatened by the other major terror sponsor – Iran. Really, it was just a matter of time.
Two sayings that apply nicely to this situation are: Nature abhors a vacuum, or more specifically, a power vacuum. The other is: The enemy of my enemy is my ally.
The Persians (Iran) have wished to be top dog in the Middle East for many moons. They hadn’t made any major inroads until the Iraq War and “Arab Spring.” Since then they have done well to capitalize on the fall of Iraq and the death of Saddam Hussein, Gadhafi in Libya and the deposed Hosni Mubarak in Egypt. Despite being despicable bags of dirt, these despots were a check against Iranian hegemony.
With the help of the Russkies, Iran has been masterful at exerting influence to fill the power vacuum.
And the threat to once-stable Saudi Arabia has grown so great that it appears to be forming a clandestine alliance with enemy No. 1 in the Middle East – Israel. This is as odd a couple as the tea party collaborating with antifa.
In a relatively short period of time, Iran has begun to “box in” the Saudi kingdom. Nations that were aligned with the Saudis or the West are now cozying up to Iran. Turkey, still inexplicably part of NATO, is leaning more toward Iran and Russia. This is very worrisome as Turkey is No. 1 in Global Firepower’s Middle East military strength rankings.
Qatar, long ally of Saudi Arabia, has begun distancing itself from the Saudis and is instead sidling up to Iran. In 2016, due to the urging of the Saudis and the ransacking of its embassy in Tehran and consulate in Mashhad, Qatar drastically pared down its diplomatic relations with Iran. However, in August of this year, Qatar restored full diplomatic relations with Iran, effectively poking a stick in the eye of Riyadh.
The proxy war against Iran in Yemen has not gone the Saudi’s way either. And Iran-funded Hezbollah has made major inroads in Lebanon.
Looking at a regional map, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out what Iran is up to. And this, as it should, scares the crap out of the Saudis.
So worried are they that “one particular article claimed that the Saudis had run tests on bringing down air defense systems to provide the Israeli Air Force a path of least resistance to Iran,” writes the Jerusalem Post.
The Saudis will benefit greatly allying with the firepower of Israel, and the Jewish nation may be able to take a breath as it quietly builds alliances with other Sunni nations. After all, at the end of the day, this conflict will likely be what it has always been – a battle of supremacy between Sunni and Shias.
And why should we care? Hopefully no one would ask such a thing. We should care because if the Middle East blows up, the rest of the world may just follow.
