Man kills six employees at education office in Saudi Arabia

In January of this year, it was announced following meetings between the countries’ defense ministers that a donation of $22 billion would be made to the Moroccan Armed Forces by Saudi Arabia to improve the military industry. The Islam Army would fight terrorism and Islamic radicals in the Middle East. Turkey is a member of the Islamic alliance.

The two regional rivals broke off diplomatic ties earlier this year after an outraged Iranian mob attacked the Saudi Embassy in Tehran following Riyadh’s decision to execute a prominent Shiite cleric.

Turkey and Saudi Arabia will hold joint military drills as part of a decision to strategically cooperate against common threats, sources have told daily Hürriyet. Speculation about the timing of the Saudi kingdom’s offer has been rife.

Speaking to Hurriyet, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Ibrahim Rahmanpour said his nation was “not concerned” about Turkey, though he warned Ankara against relations with Saudi Arabia: “Be cautious!”

Observers of the Syrian conflict say a ground intervention will be framed as a humanitarian intervention to help civilians and would involve Turkey and Saudi Arabia along with US troops in Syria.

Iran is a key ally of Syrian President Bashar al Assad and is present on the ground with its Revolutionary Guards, even if they officially are only military advisors.

“If Saudi Arabia does intervene in this part of Syria it will become yet one more combatant in the most complex and risky battlefield in the world”, he concluded.

Saudi Arabia leads a coalition of nine Arab countries that began a military campaign in March to prevent Iran-allied Houthi rebels from taking complete control of Yemen.

Russian Federation entered the war on September 30 2015 in support of the Syrian president. More important, the Saudi regime must seriously worry about sending its own troops to a conflict zone such as Syria where global and local fighters have been entrenched in what seems to be an unending sectarian war with no real victor on the horizon.

“I certainly appreciate and value the Saudi willingness to engage on the ground”. How would Saudi domestic opinion deal with such a possibility, albeit an unlikely one? These are unanswered questions that the new Saudi leadership must think about before starting yet another adventure farther in the north.