The Sunni – Shiite escalation as a factor of the rise of the terrorist threat

The article is about to examine the effect of Sunni – Shiite partition on events that happen across the Middle East in the context of global terrorist threats. The article covers natural-economic realities of a number of middle-east countries with large Shiite population and with territories which subsume about two thirds of the all world explored reserves of hydrocarbons. The priority is given to the analysis of competition between Saudi Arabia and Iran, its ideological motifs and orientations, of their rivalry in proxy wars for influence in Syria, Iraq and Yemen. It is emphasized that even after the final defeat of ISIL political Islam will not take its departure from the regional worldview space and the influence of Sunni – Shiite factor in this process will remain