As the US ups the ante via sanctions on Iran, Arab nations are beginning to jump on the bandwagon.

Over 20 new sanctions, involving about 25 different Iranian entities, have been leveled by the US, who has been joined by Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

This comes after Secretary of the Treasury, Steven Mnuchin’s trip to Israel to inform Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of additional impending sanctions on the Basij Resistance Force, an arm of the elite Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corp, recently named a terrorist group by the US.

If that is not enough, Iraqis frustrated by growing Iranian meddling in Iraqi governmental affairs attacked the Iranian consulate in Karbala and set it on fire. Iran is accused of pillaging Iraqi wealth while the country suffers in economic hardship.

There is never a dull moment in the Middle East, and one truth seems to commonly rise to the surface: hostile regimes in the area will turn on one another if given the right opportunity, and as long as they are tied up in conflict with one another, the focus turns from Israel.

The wicked conceive evil;
    they are pregnant with trouble
    and give birth to lies.
They dig a deep pit to trap others,
    then fall into it themselves.
The trouble they make for others backfires on them.
    The violence they plan falls on their own heads.

~Psalm 7:14-16