The start of a Shia-Sunni Middle East war?

[Workingman]

We now have the news that the Arab League is to create a reaction force of 40,000 troops backed by warplanes, naval vessels and tanks.

Analysts say: "It raises the prospect of a regional conflict pitting Sunni Arab nations against Shia powerhouse Iran."

The big question is what will Pakistan do? It has so far remained on the sidelines, but it, China and the UN are all removing workers from Yemen, and we already know that US and UK special forces have already left.

[Suff]

Pakistan is majority Sunni according to the CIA fact book.

Hence they should not really be aligned with Iran.

[Workingman]

There are no suggestions that Pakistan would become allied with Iran.

The question is when/if it will become allied with the Saudi (Sunni) attacks on the Houthi rebels or will it hold off and join the Arab League reaction force?

Should Pakistan get too involved the Iranians might just follow up their threat: "..... to retaliate indirectly, by encouraging pro-Iranian Shi'ite activists to carry out armed attacks in Bahrain, Lebanon and eastern Saudi Arabia." and include Pakistan's estimated 30 million Shi'ites in the mix. Iran has a porous border with Pakistan so some sort of insurgency would not be too difficult.

[Suff]

Of course if they did that, there could be a "nuclear incident" at the Iranian Nuclear plant with a ballistic inbound from Pakistan. Whether it's of Pakistani origin or not.

If anyone has read Desmond Bagley's "The tightrope men", the world was supposed to be a significantly more dangerous place back in the days of the cold war. We were walking a tightrope where any slight slip could see us plunge into Nuclear war.

However, recent analysis, reads differently. It was clear that everyone thought M.A.D was really MAD. Nobody was willing to go there and everyone backed down in the event things went too far. Sadly now we live in a world where tensions are rising and the potential for a religious conflict to become open war and to slide into Nuclear war is much, much higher than it was during the cold war.

We are walking a tightrope again, but the difference is that those holding the rope are not sane sensible people who represent entire populations. Those holding, swinging and shaking the rope are sociopaths. Lord of the flies has nothing on IS and the religious aspirations of a Shia state.

Perhaps this winter I will finally get on with my solar panel construction. If I can worry Mrs S enough that she thinks it's more important than all the other things she wants done...