Why Saudi Arabia and Iran May Be Seeking a New Crisis

[Purveyor]

The Saudi royal family and Iranian hard-liners both could benefit from the tensions.

By Fred Kaplan

The thing to keep in mind, when following reports of the mutual hissing between Iran and Saudi Arabia, is that both countries—or at least factions of both governments—want to stoke the flames engulfing Middle Eastern politics.

It’s unclear whether the Saudis executed Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, the prominent Shiite cleric, in order to ratchet up the tensions. But U.S. officials with expertise in the region say the kingdom’s leaders certainly knew Iran would loudly protest—and that was fine with them.

Still, the execution on Saturday was an unusually provocative move. Though Nimr has long called for an end to the Saudi monarchy, he was never known to advocate violence. In the past, advocates of his ilk were routinely harassed and imprisoned but, in the end, let go. As Marc Lynch notes in Monday’s Washington Post, “No Shiite cleric of comparable stature has been executed [by the Saudis] in years.”

The subsequent torching and ransacking of the Saudi Embassy in Tehran also went beyond the normal back-and-forth. Nor is it clear who, if anyone, ordered the action. An intriguing dispatch in IranWire.com reports that, soon after the execution, a propaganda website run by supporters of Iran’s hard-line factions called on its followers to rally at the Saudi Embassy the next day. Iran’s diplomatic police corps broke up the demonstration and surrounded the now-deserted embassy with three layers of protection. Then, five hours later, after the police had left the scene, a large group of young protesters, carrying posters of Nimr, launched a new attack on the embassy, breaking through its gates, wrecking some offices, then torching the building with Molotov cocktails. An hour passed before the diplomatic police arrived and pushed back the protesters, arresting 40 of them. One officer was quoted on social media as saying, “We have been told not to obstruct them too much.”

As with much in Iranian politics, the regime’s involvement in the embassy attack is unclear. President Hassan Rouhani denounced the wilding, saying, “We do not allow rogue groups to commit illegal actions and damage the holy reputation of the Islamic Republic of Iran.” The question is just how “rogue” those groups were. The timing of the retreat and the renewed assault suggests some higher-up coordination—but how high up? Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, condemned the Saudi royal family, likening its executions to those of ISIS, but he said nothing about the embassy sacking—and some of his ideological allies were downright critical. Ahmad Khatami, a hard-line prayer leader, was quoted by the Iranian Students News Agency as saying, “We condemn the crimes of al-Saud, but we don’t consider attacking the Saudi Embassy … an appropriate act.”

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http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/war_stories/2016/01/saudi_arabia_and_iran_may_be_seeking_a_new_crisis.html

[orpupilofnature57]

1. Saudi Arabia gets a pass from having a real defense except us so billionaires can thrive . Iran's

function since the Shah is to facilitate fear and hate .

[applegrove]

2. Old men ginning up conflict to keep power? Old story. But

their will be proxy wars to make sure time stands still in the Middle East.

[1StrongBlackMan]

3. Posted to for later. eom

[LiberalEsto]

4. They're doing this to raise oil prices n/t