It certainly looks like more miserable times ahead for the people in the Middle East with Iran and Saudi Arabia having at it.
Face-off between Iran and Saudis set to be region's defining fight
Con Coughlin
PUBLISHED28/03/2015 | 02:30
OPEN GALLERY 1
People watch a vehicle which belonged to Shi'ite Muslim rebels burn during clashes in Aden (REUTERS/Nabeel Quaiti)
Of all the wars that have ravaged the Middle East since the outbreak of the so-called Arab Spring four years ago, the bitter rivalry between the more fanatical adherents of Sunni and Shia Islam has now emerged as the region's defining conflict.
One week ago, we saw the deadly series of suicide bomb attacks in Yemen, which claimed the lives of nearly 150 people. It was just the latest brutal manifestation of the Sunni-Shia conflict which has resulted in rival forces inflicting widespread bloodshed throughout the Arab world.
Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Bahrain are among the many Middle Eastern states that have been badly affected by the deepening hostility between rival Sunni and Shia factions.
And at the heart of a conflict which threatens to transform the political landscape of the modern Arab world lies the deadly rivalry between Saudi Arabia's Sunni fundamentalist ruling family and Iran's equally uncompromising Shia-based Islamic revolution.
The Saudis have been on a collision course with their powerful Shia neighbours ever since it was revealed more than a decade ago that the ayatollahs were working on a clandestine programme to develop nuclear weapons.
Continue reading at:
Face-off between Iran and Saudis set to be region s defining fight - Independent.ie?
Face-off between Iran and Saudis set to be region's defining fight
Con Coughlin
PUBLISHED28/03/2015 | 02:30
People watch a vehicle which belonged to Shi'ite Muslim rebels burn during clashes in Aden (REUTERS/Nabeel Quaiti)
Of all the wars that have ravaged the Middle East since the outbreak of the so-called Arab Spring four years ago, the bitter rivalry between the more fanatical adherents of Sunni and Shia Islam has now emerged as the region's defining conflict.
One week ago, we saw the deadly series of suicide bomb attacks in Yemen, which claimed the lives of nearly 150 people. It was just the latest brutal manifestation of the Sunni-Shia conflict which has resulted in rival forces inflicting widespread bloodshed throughout the Arab world.
Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Bahrain are among the many Middle Eastern states that have been badly affected by the deepening hostility between rival Sunni and Shia factions.
And at the heart of a conflict which threatens to transform the political landscape of the modern Arab world lies the deadly rivalry between Saudi Arabia's Sunni fundamentalist ruling family and Iran's equally uncompromising Shia-based Islamic revolution.
The Saudis have been on a collision course with their powerful Shia neighbours ever since it was revealed more than a decade ago that the ayatollahs were working on a clandestine programme to develop nuclear weapons.
Continue reading at:
Face-off between Iran and Saudis set to be region s defining fight - Independent.ie?
