Middle East hit by sectarian strife

The stakes for the West have never been higher in the Middle East, only this time, it’s not just about oil, Kuwait, or al-Qaeda. It’s about a possible full-fledged tribal war between the Sunnis of Saudi Arabia and its allies vs. the Shiites of Iran and its supporters. The Saudi-led air campaign against the Houthi positions in Yemen is just the latest step Saudi Arabia has taken to ensure that the delicate political balance of the Middle East stays to its liking.

Saudi Arabia has been an ally to the US since the establishment of the Kingdom in 1932. Besides enjoying a prominent role due to various factors – geographic and spiritual – it also harbors Wahhabism, an extreme interpretation of Sunni Islam, making the Kingdom a dividing force in the region.Wahhabis are the most anti-Shiite group among the Sunni Muslims. While the Obama administration was retreating from Iraq in 2011, and as the Arab Spring was emerging, the worried Saudis began a series of military interventions throughout the Middle East. They planned to protect friendly autocratic governments, overthrow others.

The Saudi actions began in the small Shiite-majority kingdom of Bahrain, which is ruled by a Sunni royal family. The Saudis provided a small contingency force to suppress the Bahrainis who rose up against their government in 2011. In that case, the Saudi motivation to keep a Sunni government in power was combined with the fear that the fall of the Bahraini royal dynasty would open the door to similar uprisings in Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf countries. Add to that the presence of a suppressed Shiite minority that lives in the oil rich eastern region of the Kingdom and the fear that Iran could control Bahrain — all were factors in the Saudi decision to act in Bahrain.Iran and Iraq protested the move, while Sunni countries welcomed it. That deepened the Shiite-Sunni divide in the region.

Two years later, the Saudis supported General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s military ouster of the elected Islamist president in Egypt. The Saudis were threatened by the toppling of Egypt’s government and the election of a new president from the Muslim Brotherhood — if it could happen in Egypt, it could happen to the Saudi royal family. The military-backed coup ended their short reign, and the army started killing and imprisoning the Brotherhood's members, who went underground. But the crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood has given ISIS another opportunity to expand. Egypt now suffers from a growing insurgency of ISIS radicals.

Saudi support for Syria’s rebels (in the form of funding and arms) also had repercussions across the Middle East and contributed to the rise of ISIS. In 2014, after years of arming and funding the Syrian Sunni rebels who had risen against the Alawite minority rule of President Bashar al-Assad, the Saudis joined the US-led alliance against ISIS in Syria and Iraq. Whether by force or by persuasion, rebel groups' arms ended up in ISIS hands. As with the Bahraini issue, Iran and Iraq, in addition to the Syrian government, objected to the Saudis’ actions in Syria.

Now, the Saudis have formed a coalition of Middle East Sunni countries, from Morocco to Egypt, Sudan to Turkey and Pakistan, to launch an air campaign aimed at the Iranian-backed Houthi Shiite rebels who unlawfully seized power in Yemen. With Yemen roughly 60 percent Sunnis and 40 percent Shiite Zaidis, and with a region suffering from two sectarian wars in Syria and Iraq, the Saudi further escalated the sectarian conflict in the Middle East.Iran will not stand still while its Houthi allies are being attacked from the air. Iran's reaction will elicit another Sunni reaction and the crisis will intensify yet again. (The Fiscal Times)

By Riyadh Mohammed