Opinion | Iran Is Embattled. But It's Still Winning The Ideological War

Cafes in bustling Central London are always full of tourists, of which many moneyed ones come from the Arab world. Once, I found myself deep in conversation with a young Saudi architect, who, in a moment of rare candour, shared his thoughts on what he termed the "slaughtering of Gazans" over the past year.

"We are in distress," he sighed. "We young Saudis can see Gaza being flattened, but my country stays silent." These are brave words from a Saudi, no doubt on foreign land. But then, it's a country where the closest thing to freedom of speech is the freedom to agree with the monarch.

But what really made the conversation interesting was his view on Iran's missile strike against Israel on October 1. "Iran is the only country standing up to Israel and America," he said in admiration and relief. A Sunni Saudi praising a Shiite Iran is like an Iranian praising Israel. It should give Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman a sleepless night.