2007年VOA标准英语-Iran, Saudi Arabia Agree to Fight Sectarian Str

By Leslie Boctor
Cairo
04 March 2007

The leaders of Saudi Arabia and Iran have agreed to work together to end

bin1 Abdul Aziz, stands right, as Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, greets Saudi officials in Riyadh, 3 March 2007" hspace="2" src="/upimg/allimg/070523/0956070.jpg" width="198" vspace="2" border="0" />

Saudi King Abdulla bin Abdul Aziz, stands right, as Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, greets Saudi officials in Riyadh, 3 March 2007

sectarian violence in the region. Leslie Boctor reports from VOA's regional bureau in Cairo on the meeting Saturday between the two leaders.

The talks took place in Riyadh in what was the Iranian president's first official visit to Saudi Arabia.

 

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said he and Saudi King Abdullah agreed to fight what he described as "enemy" plans to divide the Muslim world.

Saudi Arabia's official news agency reported that the leaders agreed that they must work to counter attempts to fan sectarian strife² between Sunni and Shi'ite Muslim.

Saudi Arabia, the major Sunni heavy weight in the region, has been at political odds³ with Iran, the influential⁴ Shia power, over Iran's growing influence in Iraq.

But Saudi and Iranian officials have met several times in recent weeks to broker⁵ talks between Lebanon's Hezbollah-led opposition⁶ and Prime Minister Fouad Siniora's U.S. and Saudi-supported government.

The political crisis in Lebanon and the growing sectarian violence in Iraq have led to fears of sectarian conflict spreading across the region.

Abdel Monein Sa'id, the director of the Cairo-based Al Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, says with both Afghanistan and Iraq destabilized, Iran is in a position to exert more influence in the region. He says its nuclear ambitions and its military capabilities⁷ should not be taken lightly.

"Iran is one of the pillars of the Middle East. It is also a revolutionary country. It is trying to acquire nuclear capability," he said. "So, the mix of an important state with an ideology⁸ that is Islamic revolutionary, plus nuclear capacity, and a lot of nuclear preparedness, I think in itself is worrisome, whether in normal times or crisis times, and, certainly, the Saudis and many of the moderate countries in the region, they do not want to take that formula into a kind of confrontation⁹."

Sa'id says the Saudis fear a worsening situation in Iran that could escalate¹⁰ to a violent stand-off with Western powers.

"The biggest fear of the Saudis is that we get a war that nobody wants, and the war evolves and develops in such a way that brings to the region a kind of a chaos¹¹, more than that of what the Iraq war is doing for at this moment," he added.

There are great expectations for Arab efforts to calm sectarian violence in Iraq, as well as in Lebanon and the Palestinian territories. The talks between the two countries preceded a conference planned for Saturday in Baghdad of Iraq's neighbors, as well as the United States and Britain.

1 bin   

n.箱柜；vt.放入箱内；[计算机] DOS文件名:二进制目标文件

参考例句：

• He emptied several bags of rice into a bin.他把几袋米倒进大箱里。
• He threw the empty bottles in the bin.他把空瓶子扔进垃圾箱。

2 strife   

n.争吵，冲突，倾轧，竞争

参考例句：

• We do not intend to be drawn into the internal strife.我们不想卷入内乱之中。
• Money is a major cause of strife in many marriages.金钱是造成很多婚姻不和的一个主要原因。

3 odds   

n.让步，机率，可能性，比率；胜败优劣之别

参考例句：

• The odds are 5 to 1 that she will win.她获胜的机会是五比一。
• Do you know the odds of winning the lottery once?你知道赢得一次彩票的几率多大吗？

4 influential   

adj.有影响的，有权势的

参考例句：

• He always tries to get in with the most influential people.他总是试图巴结最有影响的人物。
• He is a very influential man in the government.他在政府中是个很有影响的人物。

5 broker   

n.中间人，经纪人；v.作为中间人来安排

参考例句：

• He baited the broker by promises of higher commissions.他答应给更高的佣金来引诱那位经纪人。
• I'm a real estate broker.我是不动产经纪人。

6 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

7 capabilities   

n.能力( capability的名词复数 )；可能；容量；[复数]潜在能力

参考例句：

• He was somewhat pompous and had a high opinion of his own capabilities. 他有点自大，自视甚高。 来自辞典例句
• Some programmers use tabs to break complex product capabilities into smaller chunks. 一些程序员认为，标签可以将复杂的功能分为每个窗格一组简单的功能。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓

8 ideology   

n.意识形态，(政治或社会的)思想意识

参考例句：

• The ideology has great influence in the world.这种思想体系在世界上有很大的影响。
• The ideal is to strike a medium between ideology and inspiration.我的理想是在意识思想和灵感鼓动之间找到一个折衷。

9 confrontation   

n.对抗，对峙，冲突

参考例句：

• We can't risk another confrontation with the union.我们不能冒再次同工会对抗的危险。
• After years of confrontation,they finally have achieved a modus vivendi.在对抗很长时间后，他们最后达成安宁生存的非正式协议。

10 escalate   

v.(使)逐步增长(或发展)，(使)逐步升级

参考例句：

• It would tempt Israel's neighbors to escalate their demands.它将诱使以色列的邻国不断把他们的要求升级。
• Defeat could cause one side or other to escalate the conflict.失败可能会导致其中一方将冲突升级。

11 chaos   

n.混乱，无秩序

参考例句：

• After the failure of electricity supply the city was in chaos.停电后，城市一片混乱。
• The typhoon left chaos behind it.台风后一片混乱。