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Will Saudi Oil Attacks Worsen Sunni-Shi'ite Tensions?

Edward Yeranian

   CAIRO - Saturday's attacks on Saudi oil installations in the country's
   predominantly Shi'ite Eastern Province could heat up long-standing
   tensions with the Saudi Kingdom's Sunni majority. The complex political
   stew includes allegations that Yemen's Shi'ite rebels, who claimed they
   launched the attack, had help from inside Saudi Arabia.

   However, Saudi-coalition spokesman Col. Turki al-Maliki denies the
   Shi'ite Houthis were behind the attacks.

   He says that an investigation of the attacks is under way, but initial
   indications are that the Houthis did not carry out the strikes, but are
   merely pawns of the "terrorist" Iranian Revolutionary Guard.

   "Iranians have been trying to drum up trouble in the mainly Shi'ite
   parts of Saudi Arabia for some time," Dr. Paul Sullivan of the U.S.
   National Defense University told VOA.

   "Iranian mullahs will always try to weaken Saudi Arabia in whatever way
   they can," he said, adding that "there will be a crackdown, and a big
   one," if Iran gains support in Shi'ite parts of Saudi Arabia.

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