Regarding:"The Sunni Saudi-Shiite Iranian rivalry currently manifests itself in both major conflicts in the Middle East — Yemen and Syria — and furthering the divide will only increase conflict."
- It is hard not to see the conflicts in Yemen and Syria, as Saudi fomented civil wars that use the several sects of Islam as window dressing for regional supremacy.
- The Saudis are masters of intellectual control and public interpretation beginning with how they present the wider world in their schools textbooks to how they bent Trump into thinking that he was alpha male while leading him down a path to commit USA to the Saudi's version of world order - at least for the Middle East.
- Obama's advice in the long run is the advice any adult gives to wayward teenagers -- figure out how to get along so that you can work together. He thereby put the burden of conflict resolution on Iran and the Saudi's and not on the USA or anyone else that they can be blame for the events of today and tomorrow.