The US and/behind the Iran-Saudi rivalry

(On the religious, ideological, and political roots of the Iran-Saudi rivalry.)

 

The struggle of power has been 40 years following the fall of the Shah in January 1979. It along came by Ayatollah Khomeini and the Iranian revolution to achieve his political ascendancy with a vast majority of the peoples’ support. However, Saikal (2003) affirmed that this transition, on the one hand, is a successful development of establishing the Shi’ite Islamic government as an Islamic republic; while on the other hand, it costs this new regime for “a long and violent power struggle between a cluster of Islamists” due to this newly “different ideological directions”. Why and how was the overthrowing the Shah a dynamic point to be a precondition of the fragile relationship between two regional rivals, especially Iran and Saudi Arabia? Will they go to war? Why has it been so controversial til the twenty-first century? The following analyses will investigate this concerned political issue between Iran-Saudi rivalry through the religious, ideological, and political understandings in the Middle East.

 

On the one hand, religion does matter in this region. It is affirmative to discuss the relations between state and Islam in both Saudi Arabia and Iran. According to Joseph (1998), Saudi Arabia utilises the resources of Islam to promote and consolidate a Saudi national identity, from which it contributes to the holistic legitimacy of the ruling dynasty. Whereas it is well known to co-existence of Sunnis and Shia shared fundamental beliefs for centuries between Iran and Saudi Arabia. Ayatullah Khameini, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution spoke in the 28^th Conference on Islamic Unity (2015) and stated that “there are elements working to separate Muslims from one another”, which he further noticed it “is connected to espionage in the intelligence service of Islam, from whom is not the enemies of Iran, not the enemies of Shia Muslims only, rather than enemies of Islam.” It fortifies the controversial relations in the insights of religious thoughts itself. Subsequently, it divides the religious thoughts dimension into two religions, one is leftist, and the other is fundamentalist.

 

On the other hands, political thoughts have huge backlashes in this interpretation. The Saudi-Iranian rivalry, which reached a climax tension in 2016 with few events such as a prominent of Shia cleric, Nimr al-Nimr, the attack of Saudi Arabian embassy in Tehran, has been detrimental into the diplomatic relations between Riyadh and Tehran. Saikal (2003) suggested that it is fatally opened the way of the danger and violence right at the wake of the Iranian revolution since the “transition from the Shah’s pro-Western autocracy to Khomeini’s anti-Western.” This seems reasonably regarding Iranian political movements. It is, however, the US and Saudi Arabia alliance has been built for many decades, which is of “the security cooperation and strong business ties dominated by US interests in Saudi Oil.” (Alyas, 2018). Besides, the Iranian nuclear deal with the group of world power P5+1 including the US should have a significant influence in the relationship between Iran and Saudi Arabia too. In addition, the Shi’ite establishment and political authority in Iran could indicate the use of autocratic powers while it is under the commitment of promoting democracy in the new system of the Iranian government (Saikal, 2003); while Saudi Arabia had a long “conservative Sunni jurisprudence under the Saudi family and descendants of religious cleric Sheikh Muhammad Ibn Abdul Wahhab” (Wahhabism) (Alyas, 2018).

 

Eventually, due to the divergent perspectives in religious ideology and political thoughts, the Iranian liberalization and the self-interest of the new Islamic republic while Saudi Arabia embracing Islamic values with conservative Sunni jurisprudence provoked a proxy war. The Sunni and Shia have been split. By which Grumet (2015) supposed that this has demonstrated division in seeking regional allies and promulgating sectarianism despite non-military confrontation, and to be like the Cold War of the Middle Eastern politics.

 

References:

 

Alyas, F. (2018). US – Saudi Arabia Relations. Council on Foreign Relations. Retrieved from https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/us-saudi-arabia-relations

Ayatollah Khameini Speeches English. (2015, January 31). Today both among Sunnis and Shias there are elements working to separate Muslims from one another [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nF3Sb2IbkCs

Grumet, T. R. (2015). New Middle East Cold War: Saudi Arabia and Iranian’s Rivalry. Electronic Theses and Dissertation: University of Denver. Retrieved from https://digitalcommons.du.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2027&context=etd&fbclid=IwAR2gDGRCwZNgYOxwgqPYyDoUQL7MGFLmWKGRBDZUp4AwyQUxSdAQcU1oqJ4

Joseph, N. (1998). Religion and national identity in Saudi Arabia, Middle Eastern Studies, 34(3), 34-53. DOI: 10.1080/00263209808701231

Saikal, A. (2003). Islam And The West: Conflict or Cooperation?. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.