Below is yet another reason why a joint US-Israeli strike on Iranian nuclear facilities would serve to divide the region, sparking broader destabilization and likely putting American troops stationed in the Middle East in harm's way...

In a huge and rare development after being archrivals for many years and decades, Saudi Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman Al Saud arrived in Tehran on Thursday, where he was greeted by Major General Mohammad Bagheri, chief of staff of Iran’s Armed Forces.

The two top officials are holding a number of meetings to discuss bilateral relations and issues of common interest,” state-run Saudi Press Agency said.

A senior Saudi royal last visited Iran all the way back in 1997 - when King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz made the trip amid hopes for a breakthrough with 'reformist' Iranian leaders at the time.

The Abraham Accords, involving Gulf countries normalizing with Israel, have been on hold since the Gaza war began, and Riyadh and Tehran have over the last couple years been making strides for peace and full normalization with each other. This doesn't bode well for US or Israeli interests, also given the Saudis have of late declared that no country case use their airspace for attacks on Iran.

CNN points out the following irony amid the thaw:

Bagheri is also a military officer in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Crops (IRGC), which is designated as a terrorist organization by Saudi Arabia.

Riyadh severed ties with Tehran in 2016 after Iranian protesters stormed the Saudi embassy in the Iranian capital following the execution of a Shiite cleric in Saudi Arabia. They then spent years fighting a proxy war that has embroiled a number of neighboring countries, especially Yemen.

China has been the big power which has mediated the Iran-Saudi rapprochement, at a moment the US is widely viewed as in retreat in the region.

Last October, Iran and Saudi Arabia took their improving ties a huge step further by conducting an unprecedented joint naval exercise in the Gulf of Oman. The two countries' populations have also been religious rivals for centuries.

Tehran has always been the heart of the Shia world, while the Saudi kingdom leads Sunni Muslims. Sunnis tend to consider Shia to be heretics, and historic, fierce battles have been fought over interpretations of the Quran. More recently, they waged proxy war for Syria, and before that Iraq.

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