Iran's Ahmadinejad With Saudi King AbdullahFrom Diplomatic Courier:
There has been no Western outcry against Saudi Arabia’s mediation between the Taliban and the Afghan government. On the contrary, the Mecca talks were accompanied by senior British and U.S. officials indicating that such discussions were an evitable part of ending the war in Afghanistan. Only one country has denounced the meeting as an unacceptable capitulation to terrorism and extremism: Iran. This position reflects the untold story of Iran’s tussle with Saudi Arabia for regional influence.
The talks, held at the behest of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, took place in Mecca during the final three days of Ramadan, which ended on September 29. Those present included Saudi Arabia’s intelligence chief Prince Muqrin and his predecessor Prince Turki al-Faisal; Nawaz Sharif, the leader of Pakistan’s opposition and a man with very close links to the Saudi monarchy; and Wakil Ahmad Muttawakil, the foreign minister of the former Taliban government in Afghanistan.
Though the talks were exploratory and did not mark the start of a formal peace process, in the days afterwards U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said that negotiations would ultimately be part of the end of the Afghan conflict likening this to the situation in Iraq, where the U.S. sought peace with Sunni Muslim insurgents. Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith, the departing British commander in Afghanistan, declared that the war could not be won militarily. Karzai said the Afghan people were sick of the conflict. All this implied that the Taliban could be accommodated in a negotiated settlement.
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My Comment: From the days of the Shah, there has always been competition between the Persian Shiite community in Iran, and the Sunni Arabs of the Arabian Peninsula. The Shiite Revolution in Iran diverted this conflict from a personal one that the Shah was pursuing .... to a religious one. With oil being the resource that it is .... this battle for influence has only increased with time.
What does the future hold? The Arab Sunni community has demographics and deeper oil resources in their favor. They also have the support of the Western world, as well as all of the Asian giants in their corner. Iran's allies are .... Venezuela, Hezbollah, Hamas, Syria (maybe?), and maybe a few other countries whose support is very discreet.
This "cold war" favors the Saudi's by a long shot.