Saudi Arabian protests highlight sectarian fault lines

摘要

Dubai-New sectarian anti-government riots in Saudi Arabia's oil-rich eastern province have unsettled international markets while exposing the deepening rift between the two biggest Persian Gulf oil producers. On October 4, Riyadh blamed an unidentified "foreign power" for fomenting violent unrest in the kingdom's Persian Gulf coastal province of Khobar, in what observers said was a thinly veiled reference to Iran, the major Shi'ite Muslim power in the Middle East.