IT makes eminent sense for Iran and Saudi Arabia to get together to probe each other’s mind regarding the situation in their neighbourhood, especially where the militant group, the so-called Islamic State, is concerned.

On Tuesday, Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal and Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian met in Jeddah and discussed what an Iranian diplomat called “the challenges facing the region”, particularly in Iraq, and the “means to confront extremism and terrorism”.

This was the first high-level meeting between Iran and the kingdom since the assumption of power by Iran’s relatively moderate president, Hassan Rouhani.

Let’s note that Iraq has been in the grip of terrorism for a long time, but the two oil-rich powers never could get together because of the diametrically opposite nature of their foreign policies.

The IS militia’s ‘conquests’, however, seem to have made the two regional rivals reassess their relationship.

Formed as an offshoot of Al Qaeda, the IS aroused universal condemnation because of its barbarism and was disowned even by that radical militant network.

Its capture of Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, clashes with Kurdistan authorities and the move into Syria as far as the Lebanese and Turkish borders have sent shock waves across the region.

Its extremist agenda and massacres have transformed not only the Iraqi scene but also the situation in the Levant.

In short, not only is the organisation’s barbarism widening already existing fissures in Middle Eastern societies, it is a dangerous threat to the integrity of the Iraqi state.

No wonder alarm bells have been ringing in Tehran and Riyadh, making the two powers develop a common strategy towards the group’s sectarian radicalism. Saudi Arabia is especially vulnerable, because the IS could find recruits there.

Failure to adopt a common approach to the IS threat would only mean an intensification of America’s military involvement in the region.

This will complicate matters, make heroes out of mass murderers and cause the region to sink deeper into the morass.

Published in Dawn, August 28th, 2014