An op ed from Nader Habibi in today’s Globe reports
The Saudi government does not support the Sunni insurgency, but some segments of Saudi society clearly do. A few Wahabi imams in Saudi Arabia have urged their followers to go to Iraq for jihad against the foreign forces and the Shi’ites.
There is no doubt that the Saudi leadership dislikes the current Shi’ite-dominated government of Iraq — which it regards as being too close to Iran’s cleric rulers. The Saudis fear that if the Iran-US negotiations succeed, the Iraqi government will grow stronger. This suspicion is shared by Saudi people and may be a motive for some to increase their support for the Sunni insurgents.
This comes on the bad news of last week that the Saudis did not show up at an Iraq security meeting in Damascus.
presentations from the administration touting the Surge and warning against undermining General Petraeus.