Two US high-ranking emissaries in six days to Riyadh have not bridged the differences between Obama and Abdullah. While attaching supreme importance to relations with Washington, Abdullah insists on continuing on his independent policy path and arms purchases from multiple sources.

Assad looks for scapegoat for his troubles after his fights against the burgeoning uprising against him reaches a stalemate. Tehran found a ready ear in pinning the blame on Saudi Arabia.

Saudi-US disagreements have solidified for the first time in King Abdullah's decision to put their policy arguments behind him and go for action independent of the US. His first move was to freeze his $60 billion arms purchases from America. His second: to encourage the Yemeni ruler to defy Washington. The blow to American pockets as well as prestige is disastrous: For decades, Saudi Arabia has been the top buyer of American military hardware 

Two Middle East powers strike out without the United States to foil the spread of weapons of mass destruction – Israel in Sudan; Saudi Arabia in Iran.

Saudi Arabia ranges defenses against Iran, is willing to swap gesture favoring coalition operation in Libya for recognition of its takeover of Bahrain.

The Saudi-led GCC forces in Bahrain to support the king face the onset of a Shiite guerrilla war organized by Hizballah on Iran's behalf. They all understand that this war will spread further.

By stepping into Bahrain, the Saudis took the calculated risk of accelerating Sunni-Shiite discord across the region. Because of the challenge to its religious supremacy from Iraq, Tehran is re-thinking the wisdom of its decision to hijack the Arab uprisings.

The contest between Iran and Saudi Arabia and the Sunni-Shiite split in the Arab world were ramped up Wednesday March 16 by the Bahraini security crackdown launched with tanks and helicopters to drive the mostly Shiite protesters out of Manama's main square and key points of the island-state while Saudi troops guarded strategic areas. Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi warned: “The unexpected interference of foreign forces in popular uprisings in different countries including Bahrain will have dangerous consequences."

What led the Saudi-led GCC army units to jump unhesitatingly into Bahrain while the US and Europe dithered over Libya? Tehran won't take this lying down. In its latest issue out Friday, DEBKA-Net-Weekly outlines the potential military showdown between Iran and Saudi Arabia, explores US-Israeli intelligence blindness on Egypt, and reveals how the Libyan conflict is enriching both sides - Muammar Qaddafi and his opponents – as well as global arms traffickers.
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The Saudi force that went into Bahrain Monday, March 14, along with UAE and Kuwaiti units, to stabilize the royal regime is larger than reported, consisting of a National Guard brigade, a mechanized brigade of the Saudi army and a tank battalion – altogether 3,500 men. Until recently close American allies, the two Gulf rulers flouted President Obama's policy of supporting popular uprisings, encouraged by Qaddafi gaining the upper hand against Libya's rebels and Washington's constraints against military intervention.

King Abdullah warns his princes and fellow-Arab rulers not to rely on the United States to rescue them from domestic unrest or any other threats. He blames Washington for failure to quell Bahrain troubles.

An annual intelligence report to Congress has dropped language stating that Iran's nuclear weapons ambitions are a future option and speaks in terms of the present, indicating a radical switch in US policy on Iran.  As rocketing oil prices triggered by Arab uprisings wiped out the sanctions damage to Iran, Washington confirmed the worst Saudi and Israeli suspicions that Barack Obama had come to terms with a nuclear-armed Iran, after the US long restrained Israel from nipping this menace in the bud.

Saudi protesters tried to grab limelight of Middle East by bringing forward its Day of Rage demos by four days to Monday, March 7. However, the organizers failed. debkafile's sources report exclusively that they had planned to start the demonstrations against the Saudi throne in the western and southern regions Monday. This was to have build up to a powerful climax in Riyadh and across the kingdom Friday and execute the scenario most feared by the Saudi throne: a mainstream-Shiite protest merger.

As protesters prepare for Saudi Arabia's Day of Rage on March 11, fears grow across the Arab Gulf that the fall of Saudi King Abdullah will start a chain reaction against the emirs too and rock the world's oil markets.

 Ahead of the first Day of Anger planned in Saudi Arabia for March 11, a senior Iranian figure close to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad warned Riyadh Wednesday, March 2, against launching preventive security measures against, or cracking down on, the kingdom's two million Shiites who live and work in the oil regions of the east. In Washington, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton accused Iran of using its Lebanese surrogate Hizballah to shape events in the Arab world.

Iraq's biggest oil refinery at Baiji, 180 kilometers north of Baghdad, was blown up early Saturday, Feb. 26, by an Al Qaeda cell activated by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Al Qods Brigades, debkafile's Middle East sources report. Tehran is using the Middle East turbulence to generate fuel shortages in Iraq and boost oil prices worldwide. Thursday night saw the first signs of unrest in Saudi Arabia with demonstrations by young people and by Shiites living and working in the kingdom's eastern oil regions..

King Abdullah returned home with a sackful of economic benefits but not enough political reforms to avert the Day of Anger called for March 13. Gunning for the royal house are the young and jobless and the oppressed Shiites.

Twenty-four hours after Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said the Egyptian upheaval had no military connotations for Israel, the Iranian frigate Alvand and cruiser Kharg transited the Suez Canal on their way to Syria.  Wednesday night, Feb. 16, their passage was termed "a provocation" by Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman. In Beirut, Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah said he was looking forward to Israel going to war on Lebanon because then his men would capture Galilee.

After anti-government protesters defied Bahraini security forces' efforts to dislodge them from Manama's main square, Sheikh Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa Wednesday, Feb. 16, asked for Saudi help, debkafile reveals. Riyadh has meanwhile stepped up security in the oil-rich Shiite regions of eastern Saudi Arabia. Jordan is confronted with the first outbreaks of Bedouin disaffection with the crown, Syria has geared up for Friday's Day of Anger and Libyan police fired tear gas and rubber bullets against first protesters in Benghazi.

The high jobless rate among educated young Saudis is the greatest peril to the throne. The class most likely to cause trouble is that of young educated Saudis who are bitterly frustrated by the dearth of jobs for high school and university graduates.
Unemployment in the oil kingdom stands ...