Page 33 - Proxy Wars News Today

Thats why hes calling for a temporary shutdown of muslims saudi arabia responded to those entering the united states until attacks on its diplomatic we can figure out whats going facilities by cutting diplomatic on. hell quickly cut the head off ties with iran. the iranian government responded isis and take their oil. and hell stop illegal to that by accusing saudi arabia of exploiting the attacks on its immigration by building a wall embassy to divert attention from on our southern border that ...

Saudi citizens from traveling to iran. we see this as a point of escalation. in the meantime, the russians are stepping in and offering to mediate the conflict. that is something many people dont really give much of a realistic chance. we know that the russians in syria are part of a bombing campaign on the part of bashar al assad, who is on the side of the iranians. the saudis are reluctant to accept russians as mediators. the conflict with iran and saudi arabia is escalating rather than deesca...

Going to stop it. even if you got them to agree, who knows whether youd be able to get to the thousands of militia. they had only just begun to talk, you know, it was a few week ago i think the foreign minister sat down around the stable for the first time and now they have cut off relations, cut off flights. the saudis got people in the governments to cut off relations so all of a sudden i think its two big steps backward for one step forward. >> they are not going to end up fighting each other...

Sword. today the conflict widened as bahrain and sudan joined saudi arabia in cutting diplomatic ties with iran. united arab emirates downgraded its diplomatic relations with iran. but in bahrain, which is a shia majority nation ruled by a sunni monarchy and supported by the saudis, protests have erupted against the saudi governments executions. and protests in tehran have continued. what we have seen over the last several years from iraq to syria to yemen is essentially a series of proxy wars b...

And protests in tehran have continued. what we have seen over the last several years from iraq to syria to yemen is essentially a series of proxy wars between the sunni saudis and the shia iranians for dominance in the region. it is one of the underlying drivers of the bloodshed in the region, which doesnt show signs of getting better. saudi arabia has also now ended air traffic and trade links with iran according to its foreign minister. between these two regimes of course it is saudi arabia th...

In a region where the two big powerful nations are already essentially fighting proxy wars in yemen and syria and have conflicting interests in lebanon and bahrain as well. this is a very dangerous escalation of tensions. >> it is the proxy wars, nic, that are of enormous concern to the united states. any sign that either side will use this new tension to escalate the situation in the four countries where the conflicts are raging? >> reporter: i think we are seeing it already in yemen. there was...

All these things are really surface maneuvers. the big story in the middle east is the shia versus the sunni. this is their version of protestants, catholics, call it what you will, but thats really whats happening. so in iraq it is a shia dominated government friendly to iran, and there are sunni insurgeon sis against it. in syria you have a quasi-shia government and sunni militancies and insurgent sis against it. saudi arabia if you will is spearheading the sunni side. the iranians are spearhe...

Consider to be too soft and not hard enough, not constructive enough. >> all right. our cnn producer there from tehran in iran. many thanks to you. there could be so many implications to all of this. we want to bring in our international diplomatic editor live from london to provide some perspective on this. nick, iran and saudi arabia engaged, essentially in several proxy wars already, supporting opposing sides in syria. in yemen, and in iran. what does this escalation mean for stability in t...

The table andlooked at that as an accomplishment, that is now going to be fraught with new problems. >> how might this exacerbate the tensions right now? what is the worst case scenario that you are watching? >> well, i think one of the things you worry about which the iranians have not done by the embassy, whether or not you see greater armed tension between the saudis and iranians. theyre across the different sides of a strait. that is the bigger complexity. the bigger challenge, proxy wars br...

Convoys for example, we completely underestimated how vast this self-sustaining economy is that the islamic state. we underestimated their oil revenue, their annual oil revenue by $400 million every year. it is half a billion dollars. and we were worried about some civilian casualties. that is why you see the strikes on oil, all oil trucks now. you didnt see them, when we were talking about this a year ago. >> not much has changed. andrea: were talking about a region of world a boiling cauldron ...