The year-long saber-rattling rhetoric between Iran and Saudi Arabia was raised another notch this past week.  This is another thread of activity prior to the Second Signpost  or any war – making enemies out of your neighbors.

I wrote in an earlier post about the Hajj stampede in which 400 Iranians died about a year ago. Iran and Saudi Arabia were always at odds, but the Hajj stampede gave Iran an excuse to make an outright enemy out of Saudi Arabia.  In January 2016 Saudi Arabia executed a number of Shia Muslims and then the Saudi embassy in Tehran was attacked.

And now this past week there was another exchange of rhetoric between Iran and the Saudis. This time the exchange was of outright insults, and not just accusations. Supreme leader Khamenei accused Saudi Arabia yet again of mismanaging the Hajj in Mecca. Then came the following slow-motion exchange between Al-Sheikh