Sunni states back Saudi Arabia in growing row with Iran

[oberliner]

Source: Reuters

Saudi Arabia's Sunni allies rallied behind the kingdom on Monday and several joined Riyadh in severing or downgrading diplomatic relations with Tehran, deepening a sectarian split across the Middle East.

Bahrain and Sudan cut all ties with Iran, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), home to hundreds of thousands of Iranians, downgraded its relations. Saudi Arabia broke off relations on Sunday after a mob stormed its embassy in Tehran.

Shi'ite power Iran accused Saudi Arabia of using the attack on the embassy as an "excuse" to sever ties and further increase sectarian tensions, after Shi'ites across the world denounced Saudi Arabia's execution of Shi'ite cleric Nimr al-Nimr.

A man was shot dead in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province late on Sunday, and two Sunni mosques in Iraq's Shi'ite-majority Hilla province were bombed in the fallout from the dispute between the Middle East's top Sunni and Shi'ite powers.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-saudi-security-iran-ministry-idUSKBN0UI0HZ20160104

[FrodosPet]

1. Some people think a major Middle East war is a good thing if we are not involved

Some people are wrong.

[CJCRANE]

6. We are involved.

The Saudis are our main ally in the war on terror and spreading democracy in the region.

[FrodosPet]

7. This fact sucks

It's the international version of "So which angry animal do you want to be best man at your wedding, a badger or a wolverine?"

[villager]

9. "spreading democracy?"

[trillion]

2. So we're seeing the Sauids wield their power and they have all the charm of a jerk like Trump.

Go murder 47 people and get mad if people protest a popular cleric they murdered. The Saudi's are adding insult to injury. How are they better than any Columbian crime family that cuts off heads? They're not.

[Sunlei]

3. I don't believe in capital punishment either.

In 2015, 28 inmates were executed by 6 U.S. States (Florida: 2, Georgia: 5, Missouri: 6, Oklahoma: 1, Texas: 13 [including one volunteer], Virginia: 1),[2][3] and 2,984 were on death row.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_punishment_in_the_United_States

[FLPanhandle]

4. One crazy religious theocracy fighting another crazy theocracy.

All over who's version of a fantasy sky god is correct.

[Javaman]

8. +1 nt

[JackRiddler]

11. Convenient distancing I suppose.

If you said one crazy US-backed (to the hilt!) oil kingdom looking to make war on a (relatively!) democratic country (by comparison!), or that Saudi previously tried to make the US bomb Iran for them, you'd be much closer to it. Is it more comfortable to think that the oil kingdom that has bought hundreds of millions in US arms is just some crazy thing, unrelated to your country's actions since 1944?

[oberliner]

14. Phony democracy in Iran

Iranians should be able to vote for whomever they wish, not the select few chosen by the Council of Guardians.

Iranians have been heading to the polls today to choose their next president. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has served the maximum two consecutive terms allowed by the Iranian constitution, cannot stand for re-election in this poll - and, until recently, the field of candidates looking to succeed him was broad. But that list was dramatically reduced in the past month when the all-powerful Guardian Council, handmaidens of Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, drew a red line through the names of literally hundreds of would-be candidates who, in the Council's view, were not sufficiently loyal to the Supreme Leader.

This is what passes for democracy in Iran.

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/06/201361414710846428.html

[JackRiddler]

16. How true, how true, and so beside the point.

You're not seriously contrasting the Iranian society with the incomparably more barbaric one in Saudi Arabia, are you? You know there is no measure whatsoever by which Saudi Arabia does not come off worse. Saudi Arabia furthermore has invaded two neighboring countries and foments the worst jihadi ideology and international fighters on earth. And yet the United States for decades has backed Saudi and threatened and sanctioned Iran. That's the history and policy you have to justify, presumably as an American?

And try to make proper use of the quote function eh?

[oberliner]

17. Iran is not a democratic country

You wrote that it was.

[JackRiddler]

18. Do not put words in my mouth sir.

I wrote that Iran is a democratic country compared to the Saudi regime, which it is. No comparison whatsoever. Deal with it.

Talk about Saudi Arabia. You don't get to narrow this down to Iran or your images of it. Include Saudi Arabia in this discussion, or begone.

Are you an American? Saudi Arabia has the support of your country. Your tax dollars are paid to support Saudi Arabia, and to attack Iran.

Do you support Saudi Arabia? Is Saudi Arabia more democratic than Iran? Hello?

[oberliner]

21. Your words were that Iran is a relatively democratic country

In comparison to Saudi Arabia.

My assertion is that neither is a democratic country by any measure.

[JackRiddler]

19. Do not lie about what I wrote.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=1303658

[oberliner]

22. You wrote that Iran is a democratic country modified by "relatively" and "in comparison"

Putting those words/phrases in parenthesis.

I dispute that assertion and put it to you that neither Iran nor Saudi Arabia are democratic countries.

Both countries hold elections, but are both ruled by unelected despots.

[JackRiddler]

20. How dare you defend the crimes of the Saudi regime?

Turnabout is fair play, sir. You have lied about what I wrote.

In any case, your selective attack on Iran without mentioning Saudi is suggestive enough.

Speak honestly, sir, or begone from my posts.

[oberliner]

23. No such defense has been presented

Nor have any lies been told.

[JackRiddler]

24. Do you support American aid to Saudi Arabia?

Because that's the main question here. The U.S. is responsible for Saudi. It is also responsible historically for the situation in Iran, but that's a different matter. The U.S. sponsors, protects,sells arms to and supports the wars of the Saudi regime. Are you for that or against that?

[iandhr]

5. Religon...

....causing the human race to act irrationally since the dawn of time.

[Dawson Leery]

10. Religion is the most destructive man made force.

[JackRiddler]

12. You know what the worst religion is?

I suspect it's the geostrategy, the one that has your tax dollars paid to sponsor this supposedly crazy rogue oil kingdom. While also threatening Iran with war for many years. But let's leave that out and keep the picture simple, eh?

[romanic]

13. This Sunni vs Shi'ite feud is so fucking stupid.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

15. So were the Protestant vs Catholic feuds

But they caused some significant wars.

And nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition.

[JackRiddler]

25. Excuses, excuses.

Saudi Arabia is a U.S. satellite state.

You can wring your hands about what you think the cause is, or you can take a stand: for or against further support for the Saudi barbarism?

[still_one]

26. but, but, Paul Wolfowitz told us when advocating for our invasion into Iraq that the "rift" between

the Sunni and Shia was grossly exaggerated.

It was this ignorance which hallmarked the bush administration that destabilized the entire middle east.

[duplex]

27. Sunni Versus Shia nonsense

This feud is more nonsensical than the Hatfields versus McCoys.