Iranian Intelligence Minister meets with Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah and his Saudi counterpart. Iranian-born, Israeli based Middle East analyst and writer Meir Javedanfar permits me to post this news/comment he circulated to a private list:

Gholam Hussein Ejehi, Iran's Minister of Intelligence met with both King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and Moghren Ben Aabol Aziz, his counterpart, during a recent visit to the red sea port of Jeddah.

This is a very interesting development. First and and foremost because Ejehi was met by the King himself. Ejehi was in Saudi Arabia on his own. He wasn't accompanied by the Foreign Minister Mottaki, Ali Larijani, or Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. This goes to show how much emphasis and importance the Saudis attach to his position. This has most probably come about after Iran's intelligence related achievements in Iraq.

Although the contents of their talks not been revealed by either side, the Iranian news agency Baztab speculates that this meeting was used by Tehran to complain about anti Shiite preachings which have been coming out of Saudi Arabia's Wahhabi religious institutions. According to Baztab, Iran is worried that its pilgrims may become victims of such preachings during their visit to the city of Mecca.

What was not mentioned in Baztab's report, and I wonder if it was discussed, was the recent controversial decision by the Saudis to finger print and photograph every single Iranian pilgrim entering the country. This has raised the fury of the Iranian press who accuse the Saudis of victimizing Iranian pilgrims, again.

I also wonder if the meeting was used to enable Iran and Saudi Arabia to work out a deal to over Iraq. Reduction in violence would serve both sides. It would enable the Saudis to use the opportunity to work out some kind of a deal for the Sunni politicians in the Iraqi government. Furthermore, as Sunnis also suffer from sectarian violence, a lull would enable Iraq's Sunnis to rebuild, and perhaps rearm, should the situation deteriorate again.

A fall in level of violence would also suit Iran. The current mayhem in Iraq has allowed PEJAK to use the vacuum to attack Iran's territory and its armed forces; a threat which Iran takes seriously. So serious that it has resorted to bombarding PEJAK positions inside Iraqi territory.

Not sure what the implications of the meeting are for the reported administration strategy of working with the Sunni Gulf States to counter Iran.

Posted by Laura at September 11, 2007 04:25 PM