Is Iran driving new Saudi diplomacy? By Nicholas Blanford at CSMonitor

[applegrove]

Is Iran driving new Saudi diplomacy?
In an unprecedented meeting, Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah met with members of Hizbullah in December.
By Nicholas Blanford | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor, Tuesday, 01/16/07

BEIRUT, LEBANON - Saudi Arabia is playing a more assertive diplomatic role in Lebanon, attempting to bridge rising tension between Lebanese Sunnis and Shiites while curbing Iran's influence in the tiny Mediterranean country, analysts say.

Wary of its own restless Shiite population, Riyadh is deeply concerned at what it sees as a determined drive by Shiite Iran to expand its influence into the mainly Sunni Middle East.

"The Saudis are fighting Iran in Lebanon now because if they don't, they will be fighting them in their own land," says Sarkis Naoum, a Lebanese political commentator.

The stepped-up diplomacy by the Saudis over the past six months led to an unprecedented meeting in Riyadh on Dec. 26 between Saudi King Abdullah and two senior officials of Lebanon's Iran-backed Hizbullah.

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http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0116/p06s02-wome.html