Saudi denies working with Iran on Lebanon plan

[Dover]

Saudi denies working with Iran on Lebanon plan
Thu 25 Jan 2007 12:18 PM ET

PARIS, Jan 25 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia is not negotiating with Iran to try to broker an end to the political crisis in Lebanon, but the two countries have exchanged messages about Muslim cooperation, the Saudi foreign minister said on Thursday.

Lebanese political sources said earlier this week that Saudi Arabia and Iran, backers of the main rivals in Lebanon's crisis, had been holding talks to try to reach an agreement that both sides in Lebanon could sign up to.

Asked about the reports, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said: "There is no initiative really."

Speaking at a news conference following a donors' conference on Lebanon, Prince Saud said Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei had sent a message to the King of Saudi Arabia to which he had replied.

"The message was an offer to cooperate to achieve solidarity between Muslims," the prince said...>

http://today.reuters.com/News/CrisesArticle.aspx?storyId=L2523387

[PATRICK]

1. Iran sidetracked

These are the same guys who want the Shiites slammed in the oil war and for the preservation of their sorry hides. If one were inclined to hope that underneath this the Saudis are waving the white flag on the WAR against Iran one must temper that with the glum reality that the surface is pretty much what you get these days, no secret hope, no mysterious brilliance that wins the day.

Iran should have an effective plan to take down and dethrone the Saudi princes in the event of an American strike. That would be a deterrent possibility and a good thing for most Saudi Arabians now that the American bases are gone from their soil. But this "solidarity" is keeping the hypocrisy game in full universally self-defeating throttle- which is why Israel plays the same game. The Israel that supposedly the universal target of these same people locked in strange war/stranger cooperation.

Without war, some muse the Saudis will have to hit Iran with a price war. Perhaps that was the real subtext of this meeting. Lebanon in any event is the prelude to the Iran strike the kind of convenient mess toward which our carriers are sailing with Israeli hopes.

A simple plan. A perfect mess. And everyone is sure what they are doing and incapable of stopping or bringing any good out of the walking dead who await the blow.

[Dover]

2. I'm thinking that Syria might be next to complete the squeeze on Iran.

But I believe Iran has an agreement with Syria...a mutual defense pact. So don't know if that would be a deterrent.