Both Arab and Western diplomats admit that there is evidence of arms, money and fighters coming into Iraq from Saudi Arabia but that it is almost impossible to quantify at what level. Indeed, Saudi officials are as concerned with weapons coming into Saudi.
The Saudis are also worried that a failed state in Iraq would allow terrorists to set up camps close to its vast border to target the kingdom. Officials believe Saudi money is helping to finance the jihadist groups in Iraq -- like Zarqawi's Tawhid and Jihad group -- but are not certain what amounts are involved.
And while UK forces have been brought in to help seal the smuggling routes in the desert areas that border Jordan, control of the Iraq-Saudi border area is complicated by the huge distances, awkward terrain and difficult helicopter flying conditions.
Iranian factions, centered around the Republican Guards and religious leaders in Qom, have also been accused of financing of Iraqi Shia political and militia groups including the firebrand cleric Moqtada al-Sadr with the aim of "pricking the US." The disclosure, however, that it is largely regime officials who are leading and funding the insurgency, tapping into a widespread discontent among many Iraqis, will raise questions again over whether the resistance is conforming in large part to a plan prepared before the fall of Baghdad.
"The idea that it was organized before the war is beginning to reassert itself," said Rosemary Hollis of The Royal Institute of International Affairs at Chatham House, London.
"There is a thesis that is gaining some currency with Arab nationalists that this definitely required a lot of preparation. There is also an increasingly long-term view, that they are playing a long game and, with a properly managed resistance, this is a conflict that can be won and that the Americans can be forced to go home," she said.
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