A Saudi Overture to Iran
The narrative could not have been simpler - Saudi Arabia has taken its cold war with Iran, which is being fought on the beaches, in the air and in the hills of the Middle East, to the great arena of the Muslim ummah. And Iran has badly lost in the tournament.
However, the summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Mecca this week had a subtle subtext, and anyone who knows Muslim politics would sense that on such occasions the subtexts are invariably more significant than the manifest narrative.
The narrative itself is that Syria has been banished from the Sunni world and Iran could do nothing to stop it from happening. It is posted all over the Western media. Washington even expressed satisfaction that a “strong signal” had been delivered to Damascus.