Saudi kingdom would back Iraq's Muslim Sunnis in the event of a wider sectarian conflict

Saudi ambassador to U.S. resigns - washingtonpost.com

The departure also came days after Turki fired a consultant who wrote an opinion piece published in The Washington Post that suggested the Saudi kingdom would back Iraq's Muslim Sunnis in the event of a wider sectarian conflict.

The article by a Saudi government security adviser, Nawaf Obaid, said the kingdom would intervene with funding and weaponry to prevent Shi'ite militias from attacking Iraq's Sunnis and suggested Saudi Arabia could bring down world oil prices to squeeze Shi'ite power Iran.

Saudi Arabia denied the assertions and Turki said he terminated a consultancy agreement with Obaid, who had said the views were his own and not of the Saudi government.

Turki was en route to Saudi Arabia on Tuesday where he would have meetings and take a prearranged vacation, the embassy official said.