Sunni vs Shia - Explaining the Iran-Saudi Rivalry
The two countries, at odds since the 1979 revolution in Iran and ever more so in the wake of the Arab Spring, are competing for dominance in global energy markets and nuclear technology and for political influence in the Persian Gulf and the Levant. Their conflict, with its sectarian overtones, has the potential to weaken pro-democracy forces in the Middle East and North Africa, empower Islamists, and drag the United States into military interventions. To avoid all this, the United States will need strategic imagination to devise ways to mitigate and manage the rivalry between Riyadh and Tehran.
Iran and Saudi Arabia are neither natural allies nor natural enemies but natural rivals who have long competed as major oil producers and self-proclaimed defenders of Shia and Sunni Islam, respectively. Until the Iranian revolution in 1979, their rivalry was managed and controlled (sic) by the United States, with whom they were both strategic allies. But after the Shah was overthrown, Saudi Arabia’s leadership became frightened by the Ayatollah Khomenei’s denunciation of the Saudi monarchy as antithetical to Islam and his ambition to export to the revolution to the Arab world. Saudi Arabia remained an ally of the United States; Iran became an implacable foe. Thereafter, the rivalry between Iran and Saudi Arabia became defined by the new U.S. strategy - ally with Saudi Arabia to offset Iran.
http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn...
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Gen 12:1...Politics / Land, Materialism / Trading Partners / Kindred, Religion / Father House of Worth-ship... Eccl 4:12
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The Plot Thickens..Shia-Iran / Sunni-Arabia ... Gang Wars....?
Thu, 10/13/2011 - 10:42Carefully Hear...the Way
Carefully Consider...the Truth
Carfefully Live...the Life
With the Sunni / Shia partisan gang war going on for world domination of Islam and ALL the places it exists (everywhere) playing out today in Washington DC... involving a foiled plan for a paid hit / assassination plot by mexican drug contacts, this problem has hit our shores now publicly in a big way ...
"Saudi Arabia has issued a menacing warning to Iran that it will have to pay a price for the alleged plot to hire a Mexican drug cartel to assassinate its ambassador in Washington."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/12/iran-assassination-plot-saud...
The officials said the plot might indicate a shift to a more combative Iranian foreign policy toward Saudi Arabia and the United States. The United States has brought international pressure on Iran’s nuclear program, and Iran and Saudi Arabia have long waged proxy battles for influence in the Muslim world.
“The Iranians watch the Saudis roll tanks in Bahrain, and they see a key ally in Syria going down, so they step up the Quds Force,” one senior administration official said. He referred to Saudi military assistance to the Sunni monarchy of Bahrain, whose majority population shares the Shia Islam of Iran.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/13/us/iran-sees-terror-plot-accusation-as...
James 3:14-...But if you have bitter jealousy (envy) and contention (rivalry, selfish ambition) in your hearts, do not pride yourself on it and thus be in defiance of and false to the Truth...
This (superficial, carnal) wisdom is not such as comes down from above (heavenly), but is earthly, unspiritual (animalistic) even devilish (demonic)...
For where ever there is jealousy (envy) and contention (rivalry and selfish ambition), there will also be confusion (unrest, disharmony, rebellion) and all sort of evil & vile practices....
Does anyone know if Saudi has
Thu, 10/13/2011 - 10:56Does anyone know if Saudi has any part in end times prophecy?
While I get that there is a very real battle for religious/political dominance over there, I can't help but cynically think "this is a convenient development to draw attention away from the fast and furious fiasco on the part of our government."
That's not to detract at all from this story and most certainly not from Sham-Shamar's analysis which is always thorough.
Not THE but Pre - One World Religion...?
Thu, 10/13/2011 - 19:46We may just have to watch Dan 12:8-10 as it unfolds either from here or heaven...I find Walid Shoebat's analysis / working theory most interesting (as a past muslim and fluent in Arabic and the Quran) in which Islam the religion, but not the people of Arabia, Iran or elsewhere, self destructs in both sectarian gang warfare but primarily from YHVH's heavenly intervention in the form of large flaming hail / methane ice? directed specifically at all their mosques / high places before the one world religion rises from the remains of the ex-muslims and other ex-nimrodian & ex-apostic religionists...incidentally he is not currently a rapturist...and this is just one man's scripturely considered scenario.
Facts are not yet... Knowledge...not yet... Wisdom...not yet... Understanding...Gen 2:9...Psa 111:10...Psa 147:5...1 John 5:20
Carefully Hear...Faith in God's Goodness...Matzah
Carefully Consider...Truth in God's Mercy...Shabua
Carefully Live...Grace in God's Light...Sukkah
Love the God of all Truth, eat from the Tree of Life, truely believe that Jesus the Christ is your highest & only Prophet, Priest, & King ruling & reining from Heaven...Abba is still All Knowing, All Present & All Powerful...
@ Lost.
Sat, 10/15/2011 - 11:10I think Saudi Arabia was actually a nation that made peace with Israel after the Psalm 83 War OR refused to participate in it. I'll have to find the scripture to back this up though...
Let me know if you find it.
Sat, 10/15/2011 - 16:16Let me know if you find it. Hal Lindsey seems to think they are the financiers behind all the uprisings. Using the oil profits to turn the world on its head.
Sunni vs. Shia - The cold war re-emerges...fitna / discord
Fri, 10/21/2011 - 21:52The contest between Iran and Saudi Arabia formed the central dynamic in the larger regional cold war which has defined the Middle East in recent years. Iran has sought very publicly in recent years to build its regional popularity through enmity toward Israel. But the primary strategic ambitions of the Islamic Republic are directed not westward toward the Mediterranean – but rather southward, toward the Persian Gulf. Iran is the most populous country of the Gulf region, with the largest army. It sees domination of this area as a matter of manifest destiny. Tehran seeks to replace the United States as the guarantor of the security of Gulf energy routes. This ambition by its very nature brings it into a situation of conflict with the main beneficiary of that American guarantee – the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
http://www.jpost.com/LandedPages/PrintArticle.aspx?id=242597
Coming Islamic Gang Wars...?
Sun, 11/13/2011 - 16:09http://www.rap-con.com/signs/turkey-evacuates-diplomats-families-from-da...
Gen 11:6...Gen 12:1...Gen 16:12...Isa 49:26...
Luciferian / Nimrodian proverb: “I against my brother; I and my brother against our cousin; my brother and our cousin against the neighbors; all of us against the strangers.”
Houses of Worthship / Collective Partisan Gang Think...Gen 12:1
Politics / Partisan Territory / Country / Korah
Money / Partisan Economic Influence Bribing / Trading Relatives / Kindred / Balaam
Religion / Partisan Theology / Father's House / Cain
Hey Jude…11
Big Ego / Smarter than God…disregard the Way...Cain
Big Money / Paid Advocate…disrespect the Truth...Balaam
Big Power / Gang organizer…destroy the Life (even their own)...Korah / Koran
Jude 11...Woe unto them! for they have run riotiously in the way of Cain, and have abandoned themselves for the sake of gain (it offers them, following) the error of Balaam, and have perished in rebellion (like that) of Korah
Iran subsidizing the conversion of Palestinians to Shi’ites...
GAZA CITY — Palestinians have been quietly converting from Sunni to
Shi’a Islam.
Hundreds of Palestinians are said to have converted to Shi’a Islam over
the last two years. They said the effort was financed by Iran through
proxies in the Gaza Strip.
“Their numbers are not great, but people are noticing for the first time
Shi’ites in the Gaza Strip,” a Palestinian source said.
The sources said the Hamas regime has not acted against the Shi’ite
converts. They said Hamas has decided to tolerate a small Shi’ite presence
amid Iran’s massive military and financial support.
The Palestinians are said to have been proselytized by a small Shi’ite
sect that appeared in the Gaza Strip around 2006. They said
operatives of such Iranian proxies as Islamic Jihad were the first to
convert to Shi’a in what was believed to mark a career promotion.
“We in the Shi’ite stream consider ourselves an extension of the Islamic
republic of Iran and Hizbullah,” a Shi’ite activist, identified as Abdul
Rahim Hamad, said.
http://www.worldnewstribune.com/?p=1473
Alawi / Shia vs Sunni have "Security" Council lining up ... !
Sun, 02/05/2012 - 14:59Russia and China veto resolution on Syria at UN ...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-16890107
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alawi
Assad sends hit squads after top Lebanese officials
Mon, 02/06/2012 - 01:28Obadiah 15...For the day of the LORD YHVH is near upon all the nations. As you have done, it shall be done to you; your dealings will return upon your own head. Psa 94:23 ..
Syrian President Bashar Assad has hired hit squads to kill top Lebanese government, intelligence and security officials whom he suspects of helping insurrectionists and Saudi and Qatari agents smuggle fighters and weapons into the country to fight his regime. One Lebanese hit squad is reported by debkafile's counter-terror sources as having been captured in the third week of January by Lebanese security police. Its members confessed to receiving, cash, arms, explosives and a list of targets from Syrian Military intelligence, with precise instructions on the method of assassination for two targets, Director General of Lebanese Internal Security Maj. Gen. Ashraf Rifi and his deputy, Col. Wissam al-Hassan, head of its Information Branch.
The team was instructed to rig two bomb cars, each loaded with one ton of explosives to be detonated remotely. They were told which cars would be driving by different routes to a secret meeting of all Lebanese intelligence arms at Internal Security headquarters in the Christian Ashrafieh district of Beirut. Two narrow side streets would bring them close to their destination and it was there that the bomb cars would be planted.
This was exactly the same method used to assassinate the former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Harirri in February 2005
http://www.debka.com/article/21712/
Iran Threatens Neighbors Not to Facilitate Strike
Mon, 02/06/2012 - 14:13With their navy, missiles, & spy satelite upgraded and coming on line, the defiled are warning / promising to defile others mocking Hb# 6711 in their gang war ... alal Hb#5953 Ar#5954 ...
http://www.jpost.com/LandedPages/PrintArticle.aspx?id=256554
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.0dd2431bccd6950e081eb6d881d3...
US Closes Embassy in Damascus evacuates personnel..
Mon, 02/06/2012 - 15:09BEIRUT (AP) – The U.S. closed its Syrian embassy Monday and Britain recalled its ambassador to Damascus in a dramatic escalation of Western pressure on President Bashar Assad to give up power, just days after diplomatic efforts at the United Nations to end the crisis collapsed.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5g0ZFEXrdKND72kqHLHGt6s...
Turkey plans new Syria "initiative" after U.N. "fiasco"
Wed, 02/08/2012 - 13:35Sunni / Turkey / eye balls another run at Shia / Syria ...
Pro 23:6-8...Eat not the bread of him who has a hard, envious and evil eye, neither desire his gang theology... the morsel which you have eaten you will vomit up and lose your "sweet" words...
On Saturday, China and Russia stymied U.N. action on Syria by vetoing an Arab-backed Security Council resolution, the only members of the 15-member world body to vote against it, drawing widespread condemnation from Western and Arab nations.
Without naming any particular country, Erdogan said the vetoes gave a "green light" to the Syrian government to continue its military attacks on anti-government protesters. Assad's forces are also now battling armed insurgents in some areas.
"The U.N. Security Council has once again held captive the conscience of the international community. Possessing the power to veto is a great responsibility. Using this power gives a green light for the persecution to continue," Erdogan said.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/07/us-turkey-syria-idUSTRE8160RO2...
Turkey / Sunni "conference" likely excluding Russia & China, both "supporters" of Syria / Shia as long as the money & assets last / can be collected, will be excluded..
http://www.reuters.com/assets/print?aid=USTRE80S08620120208
Syria raises specter of Islamic proxy wars world wide ...
Wed, 02/08/2012 - 17:03WASHINGTON (Reuters) - As the Obama administration weighs worst-case scenarios for Syria, one stands out: a civil war that develops into a proxy battle between Sunni / Arabs and the West on one side, and Russia and Shia / Iran on the other.
U.S. officials stress they do not want to play a military role in Syria, where President Bashar al-Assad's crackdown on protests has killed more than 5,000 people and raised fears of a protracted power struggle in a country at the heart of the Arab world.
But after U.S. and Arab-led efforts to craft consensus in the U.N. Security Council on Syria's political transition were torpedoed by vetoes from Russia and China, some analysts say risks are growing that the international community will line up on opposite sides of a fratricidal war.
The volatile ingredients are already in place.
http://www.reuters.com/assets/print?aid=USTRE8162FH20120207
Why Syria Will Not Be Another Libya
Wed, 02/22/2012 - 23:13The architects of the Libyan disaster in France, the UK, the United States and Qatar have decided that Syria is the next step in replacing dictators with Sunni Muslim Brotherhood allied "democratic" parties. But no matter how eager they are to roll the Arab Spring forward with a month of bombing raids, this won't be a relative cakewalk like Libya.
http://www.aina.org/news/20120221132058.htm
Syria's Christians .. Muslim Gang Wars ..
Sun, 03/04/2012 - 15:02Syria’s Christians: Caught Between Supporting Assad and Fears of an Islamist Takeover Rom 3:13-18
President Bashar al-Assad appears to have declared war on his own people through a brutal, year-old crackdown that has claimed the lives of at least 7,000 people. So it is perhaps surprising to learn that Syria has long been a diverse society in which minorities and women have enjoyed certain rights and freedoms unknown in most other Arab nations.
http://www.ibtimes.com/art/services/print.php?articleid=308247