Crisis in the Mideast

Tuesday January 5, 2016

I’ve Been Thinking:

As I wrote yesterday, tensions between Sunnis and Shiites are becoming more and more apparent.  The conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran has spilled over into the rest of the Middle East.

Saudi Arabia announced that they cancelled all flights and all trade with Iran. 

Bahrain, a Saudi ally, has also expelled Iranian diplomats from their country. 

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has said that they are downgrading their relationship with Iran.  They no longer have full diplomatic ties and have asked the Iranian ambassador to leave.  The most senior Iranian diplomat now in the UAE is a “charge de affairs.”  This is almost like expelling the entire diplomatic team - it leaves Iran with a skeleton presence in the UAE.

Sudan has also expelled their Iranian diplomats.

The lines have been drawn.  Iran, Syria and Hezbollah are on one side.  The rest of the Arab world is on the other side.

Now let's look at how China sees the situation.  In speaking about the Saudi / Iran conflict, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a news briefing on Monday that:  "Like the international community, China is highly concerned about the developments and expresses concern that the relevant event may intensify conflict in the region."

It is important to analyze how the Chinese see the unfolding of international issues that may have 

an impact on their country.  As you can clearly see, China is worried about the Middle East, especially this tension between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Islam is filled with internal conflict.  For those in the West who do not yet realize it, tensions between Sunnis and Shiites are even greater than tensions between Islam and non-believers. The non-believer can be saved, a heretic cannot be saved. 

Islam, Shiite and Sunni alike, views the other as heretics and according to their belief, they are both permitted to murder the other with impunity.

That is what we are seeing.

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