Thunder Bolt
Silly old bat
We do provide a lot of technical and practical help to Saudi Arabia but IS are a threat to them as Saudi are the leaders of the Arab world. It's nothing to do with western imperialisation, as you like to think, but far more to do with Sunni v Shia, which has been going on for centuries.
Since the late 20th Century, complex political problems have been turned into sectarian issues by the parties involved, particularly in parts of the Middle East and Asia.
This has been the case in Iraq, Lebanon, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Syria.
Since taking political power in 1979, Iran’s Shia clergy has been supporting the Shia Muslims of Iraq, Lebanon and Syria. This spreading influence has caused concern to the Sunni rulers of Arab countries with Shia minorities, such as Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. On the other hand, members of the Saudis' own Shia minority have complained of being treated as potential fifth columnists for Iran.
Iraq
In 1980, Iraq - led by Sunni leader Saddam Hussein - invaded its neighbour Iran, which was led by the country’s new Shia ruler Ayatollah Khomeini. Saddam wanted Iraq to replace Iran as the dominant state in the Persian Gulf, but he was also worried that the Iranian revolution could have a ripple effect among his country’s Shia majority. The war between Iran and Iraq was one of the bloodiest of the century, with an estimated one million Iranians and up to half-a-million Iraqis dying in the conflict.
