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Ever since the UN Security Council imposed new sanctions on Iran
last week after the country refused to stop enriching uranium, concerns
have mounted over the possibility of a nuclear-type conflict in the
Middle East involving the United States, Israel, Iran and perhaps a host
of Arab countries including Saudi Arabia.

Whilst the descent towards war may well prove inevitable over the
course of 2011, this article explores the strategic necessities of the
other side of the equation; namely the question of just how

bad a nuclear-armed Iran would be in what is considered the most volatile neighborhood in the world.

By far the most interesting leak that surfaced from the US cable
disclosures is the repeated insistence of the Saudi king exhorting the
United States to withdraw from Iraq by taking a detour through Iran. As
Reuters reported on the WikiLeaks story on November 29:

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia repeatedly exhorted the United States
to "cut off the head of the snake" by launching military strikes to
destroy Iran's nuclear program, according to leaked U.S. diplomatic
cables.

A copy of the cable dated April 20, 2008, was published in the New
York Times web site on Sunday after being released by the whistleblowing
web site WikiLeaks. The classified communication between the US Embassy
in Riyadh and Washington showed the Saudis f... >>>