Once again, that's down to this tribal mentality; Saudi being mainly Suni ( ruling family particularly ) and Iran being Shia. These people were NEVER ready for democracy and the west shouldn't have touted it as the panacea that they did.  Being so divided and tribal as they are, they were way behind on the social evolutionary scale. The iron fisted rulers they had, kept cohesion in Countries where, given half the chance, one half would have killed the other half.  That's why the Chinese Government is so desperately trying to continue running the Country they way they have been and the Human rights issues are a penalty worth paying for peace and cohesion. Can you imagine what would happen, if a country with almost a quarter of the Worlds population; got democracy......total freedom for EVERY village to vote for what they want and expect it to be delivered...............God I hope the West don't get their way there. The truth is, that it wasn't about these Countries; because as long as the iron fisted rulers were the ones WE wanted, that was alright........it was the ones we didn't want that we felt should be introduced to democracy.  So we let loose " The Dogs of War ".........opened " Pandora's Box ".  Why is it that mankind is so blind to the fact that not all mistakes can be put right and one day one of those mistakes will ultimately end it ALL..........unless nature does it first.