Australian leaders have made much in recent times of the need for a peaceful solution to the interrelated conflicts in the Middle East. If they were interested, now might be a unique opportunity for bridge-building.
The rapidly-intensifying struggle in the Gulf between the powerhouses of Iran and Saudi Arabia has many roots. Iran is the largest Shi'a Muslim country in the world and has a partially-democratic theocratic political system. Saudi Arabia is a Sunni monarchy with control over the holiest sites in Islam.
Each sees itself as the leading Muslim power and their dispute evokes centuries-old Persian-Arab tensions.
Immediate causes of the present quarrel include the deaths of nearly 500 Iranian pilgrims in the latest haj (allegedly due to poor organisation) and obstruction of attempts to repatriate them, Saudi Arabia's execution of a prominent Shi'a theologian, Nimr Baqir Al-Nimr and the mobbing of the Saudi embassy in Tehran in response. (Nimr was an ayatollah, recognised within Shi'a Islam as having the knowledge and virtue to issue authoritative opinions on the faith, and his 'trial' was widely regarded as a sham.)
Though Iranian police drove the protestors off fairly swiftly, Saudi has allegedly bombed Iran's embassy in Yemen (though this itself is contested) and diplomatic ties have been cut.
In the long run, this dispute benefits neither player. Iran is attempting to shake off international sanctions following the nuclear deal it recently struck and Saudi Arabia is already mired in a year-old, stalled invasion of Yemen which has seen increasing Saudi and civilian casualties for little to no gain on the ground.
Additionally, the rivals support opposite sides in Syria. The Saudis, like the US and Turkey, have thrown their backing behind hardline Salafist fighters like the Al Qaeda linked Al Nusra Front seeking to overthrow Bashar al-Assad (although they, like the Turks, have a more ambivalent attitude to ISIS than do the Americans).
The Iranians, like the Russians and increasingly the Iraqis, regard Assad as the best of a bad bunch who is at least a non-sectarian tyrant (unlike the rebels who kill Shi'as and Christians) and therefore worthy of support, at least until the insurgencies have been defeated.
The US, while backing Saudi (including militarily in Yemen) seems to be increasingly exasperated with how far it has to stick its neck out for its ally. While muting overt criticism because of the ongoing proxy war between the US and Russia in Syria, the US is unlikely to