From The Asia Times
By Pepe Escobar

The Bush administration, in a sense, is getting what it wants in the wider Middle East. To battle a fictitious Shi’ite crescent (a construct by Jordan’s King Abdullah), it has emboldened even more a reactionary Sunni crescent (Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates), thus exacerbating to a paroxysm the “strategy” it has already applied in Iraq: sectarianism as the golden parameter of imperial divide and rule. Historically, Sunnis and Shi’ites have co-existed amid social tensions. But never have these tensions been so cynically exploited – by Washington – as in post-invasion Iraq and the wider Middle East.

The administration of US President George W Bush was forced to acknowledge that the monumental disaster of occupied Iraq had to be blamed on a new scapegoat. Thus the umpteenth twist in the “war on terror”: exit al-Qaeda, enter Iran.

The Sunni Arab “axis of fear” is merrily playing along. King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia even complained in a Kuwaiti newspaper that Iran is trying to convert Sunni Arabs to Shi’ism. Even Israel is now by all means allied with Saudi Arabia against Iran – Mecca/Jerusalem against Qom; Muslims and Jews battling Muslims.

It’s enlightening to compare this development with how Iran’s ambassador to Syria, Mohammad Hassan Akhtari, sees it – as nothing other than a replay of the British Empire’s divide-and-rule. Washington is once again sowing the seeds of discord among Muslims: “Bush and his allies are in favor of further unrest, turmoil and crises so that they can justify deployment of their troops in the region.”

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