sectarian middle east

The rather long documentary by PBS titled "Bitter Rivals: Iran and Saudi Arabia (Part One)" opens my eyes to the issue of sectarian in the middle east. Living in a country with Sunni majority I had no idea how brutal the relationship between Sunni and Shia embodied by Saudi and Iran. They literally kill and destroy each other. I would wonder if it is possible to have peace in near future. 

The split between the sects went back some 14 centuries back. The divide originated with a dispute over who should succeed the Prophet Muhammad as leader of the Islamic faith he introduced. Sunni and Shia have lived alongside each other in relative peace for most of history. But starting in the late 20th century, the schism deepened, exploding into violence in many parts of the Middle East as extreme brands of Sunni and Shia Islam battle for both religious and political supremacy.

I wondered if left to themselves, would the rivalry between the two sects would reach this level we have recently? The presence of oil in the region is undoubtedly be a factor that would cause the escalation of the conflict. With the oil money countries in the region are able to arm themselves with modern weapons. Obviously the weapon manufacturers would deny their involvement. For them it is business as usual. They would argue that once sold the buyer would assume the whole responsibilities of the consequences. 

The other factor would be the religiosity of the people in the region. Above it mention that the conflict is mostly driven by the extremes. Obviously these extremes are able to push their agendas so that it becomes the states agendas. Imagine that these radicals failed to have their goals assumed by the rest of their countrymen. 

The instability of middle east would eventually affect the whole world. Conflict between sects is always with us since the dawn of history. In the past we had wars between catholic against protestant. I think the relationship between those sects of Christian has much improved in our time. I am sure it would also be possible in the middle east.