Things escalating to a larger regional crisis?
Saudi Troops in Syria Send Shivers Through Tehran
UAE issues travel ban to Lebanon, Saudi calls for its citizens to leave | The National
Could the Syrian Conflict Spread to Lebanon and Russia?
Iran should worry about the Russian agenda - FT.com
..........The repercussions of Iran’s aggressive defence of its Shia axis in Arab lands stretch beyond the Middle East. To continue on a path now charted by Russia will sabotage any re-engagement with the west. A Russian victory abetted by Iran in what is left of Syria cannot but be perceived as a huge setback for the US — as well as for a Europe divided by a refugee crisis which still has a long way to go.
An Arab foreign minister says he asked Javad Zarif, Iran’s foreign minister and lead negotiator in last year’s nuclear talks: “Does Iran want to be the leader of the Persian world, or the leader of the Shia world?” In other words: a recognised regional power or the spearhead of a sort of Shia supremacism in permanent conflict with (ever more radical) Sunni supremacism. There is not much time left for Iran to decide whether its international and regional face is that of Mr Zarif or General Soleimani.