Saudi Arabia: Feeling the Iranian Pinch in Iraq

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal says U.S. policy in Iraq is exacerbating sectarian divisions to the point of effectively handing the country to Iran. With a Shiite-led government poised to take control in Baghdad and the United States eager to relieve U.S. forces in the region, the House of Saud is growing increasingly anxious at the thought of Persian influence seeping across Iran's borders at the expense of Iraq's Sunni community. Riyadh therefore is signaling Washington that U.S.-Iranian cooperation over Iraq could spell trouble for U.S. relations with the Saudi kingdom.