Joel Wing mulls it:
Despite Iraqi and American attempts to forge better ties between Baghdad and Riyadh since 2003, the Saudis’ paranoia about Iran and their bias against Shiites, have prevented any thawing of relations. Instead, the kingdom has tried to keep Iraq’s government at bay diplomatically and economically, while both knowingly or tacitly supporting the insurgency, and backing Sunni parties to counter the Shiite ones. This has largely failed to change anything in Iraq, other than gain the ire of the Iraqi government. Unless some kind of nationalist coalition like Iyad Allawi’s comes to power, it seems that the Saudis will continue to give a cold shoulder to Iraq. That has an impact throughout the region, as Iraq will have a hard time gaining full acceptance in the larger Middle East until Saudi Arabia finally comes to terms with the fact that Shiites are going to be running Iraq for the foreseeable future.