France hopes to convince the Saudis that the time has come to implement a stalled arms deal with Lebanon.

The army wants a tougher anti-Iran line than the civilian politicians and, if history is any guide, we should expect that the army will get what it wants.

Representatives of the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels and the Saudi-backed President in exile are in their second day of U.N. sponsored peace talks in Geneva. Expectations are low.

Saudi Arabia has invited Iran to diplomatic talks in Riyadh. That’s a big change. But given the rampant duplicity in Middle East diplomacy, that could just as easily signal that the situation is getting more tense, not less.

U.S.-Saudi relations have been hovering barely above the sand in recent months, and Riyadh is showing an increasing willingness to pursue its regional goals without Washington’s oversight. The attendance of a Pakistani General to yesterday’s massive Saudi military parade suggests a closer relationship between the two regional powers. Iran will not be pleased.