In any case, there are chances that Saudi-Turkey support for Islamic State (IS) would only grow brazen in coming weeks. The quagmire of Middl East is getting worse and that's a bad news in general for world at large.
The Shia-Sunni divide has been there since the seventh century but it has got nothing to do with today's violence. The two sects have coexisted for most of Middle East' history.
The traces of present rupture could be put at the door of US through its 2003 Iraq invasion. Iraq's dictator Saddam Hussein was hostile to both Riyadh and Tehran and his remove left Iraq in a vacuum where both Saudi Arabia and Iraq tried to increase their influence. The subsequent conflicts in Syria, and to a lesser extent in Libya and Yemen, have exacerbated the sectarian relations.
Going further back, the relations between the two soured in 1979 when Iran turned into a Shia theocracy. Iranians were seen as a threat to promote such a revolution in other parts of Middle East.
Saudis understand that Sunnis number more in Middle East. By polarizing the region, they want to bring all Sunnis under their banner and keep the House of Saud going.
All this has happened in the last 15 years; in the new millennium. History, if it survives, will judge United States very badly for its invasion of Iraq in 2003.
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