Muslim Proxy War News

NRO writes of Iran vs The Saudis, and quotes from the New York Post's Peter Brookes: Iran vs The Saudis, their Proxy Wars Rage in Iraq & Across the Muslim World:

SUNNI insurgency, Sunni-Shia sectarian violence, al Qaeda terror - Iraq doesn't need more problems. But it has one that too often gets overlooked: It's quickly becoming the latest battlefield in the proxy war between the Middle East's rising powers, Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Brookes also points out:

* In Lebanon, Saudi Arabia backs the government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora. Iran backs Shia Hezbollah, which has sought to topple the democratically elected government since the end of the war with Israel last summer.

* In the Palestinian territories, both Iran and Saudi Arabia are courting Hamas. While Tehran has long supported Hamas against Israel, Riyadh cut in on Hamas' dance card in February by brokering a political agreement between Hamas and Fatah at Mecca.

* The Saudis recently stepped in to help ink a peace deal between Sudan and neighboring Chad. They won points for preserving peace within Sunni Islam - but also likely hoped to get Khartoum to stop Iran's funding of the conversion of young Sunni Sudanese to Shiism.

and

* In 1987, Iranian pilgrims tried to incite sectarian divisions while on the holy Hajj to Mecca. Saudi security forces killed 402.

* Iran was fingered in the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia, which killed 19 American servicemen and injured nearly 400.

* Al Qaeda operatives, who've supposedly been under "house arrest" in Iran since shortly after arriving from Afghanistan in early 2002, are likely behind the terrorist acts in Saudi Arabia that started in 2003.

In related news, Hot Air notes that U.S., Sunni states co-sponsoring covert ops inside Iran.

The house of cards is tumbling down?