WASHINGTON POST COLUMN: “Fragile” is the word that journalist Karen Elliott House used to describe Saudi Arabia in her 2012 book about the country. “Observing Saudi Arabia is like watching a gymnast dismount the balance beam in slow motion,” she wrote. The world holds its breath wondering if the Saudis “will nail the landing or crash to the mat.”
This past week, the House of Saud seemed to have lost its footing. The kingdom’s fear of a rising Iran led it to execute a dissident Shiite cleric,triggering riots in Iran, a break in diplomatic relations and a sharp escalation in the sectarian feud that is ravaging the Middle East…
Saudi Arabia is a frightened monarchy. It’s beset by Sunni extremists from the Islamic State and Shiite extremists backed by Iran. It’s bogged down in a costly and unsuccessful war in Yemen. And it mistrusts its superpower patron and protector, the United States, in part because of the United States’ role in brokering the nuclear deal that ended Iran’s isolation… (more)
