Saudi-Iran rapprochement?

-DR. ABDUL RUFF COLACHAL 

_______________

Alongside the US-Cold war, there is also a Saudi-Iran cold war progressing for years  now unfortunately without any valid reason. Iran is a majority Persian country that belongs to the Shiite branch of Islam. The vast majority of Saudis are Sunni Arabs, with a Shiite Arab minority

Growing tension between Iran and Saudi Arabia has popularized talk of a new cold war in the Middle East. While the most influential regional powers in the Persian Gulf take care not to get embroiled in a direct conflict, they try to outflank each other by seeking allies among regional political forces, and through intense propaganda. At its core, the Iranian-Saudi rivalry is about power and money: two oil-rich giants, vying for control of the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow water passage that accounts for almost 20% of all oil traded worldwide (and 40% of all US crude imports pass).

Iran and Saudi Arabia are involved in a series of seemingly intractable disputes which have the potential to destabilize the entire region

Relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran have never been smooth but further strained by the Syrian conflict and the fallout from unrest in Bahrain.

Saudi Arabia claims leadership not of entire Islamic community but only Sunni Muslims while Iran is considered to represent the global Shiia Islam.

The needless confrontation between Saudi led Sunni nations and Iran led Shiite world has been fully exploited by the enemies of Islam with ulterior motives. .

NATO rogue states led by USA-UK terror twins launched the anti-Islamic terror war by using the Sept 11 hoax in 2001 on the strength of the great Sunni-Shiite divide.

Notwithstanding the massacre of millions of Muslims globally by the NATO military forces since Sept-11, Saudi and Iran continue to be the regional rivals pursue polices targeting each other,

Three years of enmity between these brotherly countries even friendly ties impossible over the war in Syria, in which Iran has backed the Damascus government and Saudi Arabia has supported the rebels. The regime of Bashar al-Assad is Iran’s key Arab ally, and a conduit for weapons that flow from Iran to Hezbollah via Damascus. To further isolate Iran, Saudi Arabia has extended diplomatic and financial support to Syria’s opposition, and has called for the arming of the rebel Free Syrian Army.

Shiite Muslim Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia have also been at odds over Bahrain, where the Sunni ruling family received Saudi military support in its suppression of Arab Spring-inspired protests among its Shiite-majority population in 2011.

.

Recently, Saudi kingdom has invited Iran to Islamic bloc foreign ministers in Jeddah next month and Iran welcomed Saudi invitation to Islamic bloc meeting as a friendly gesture. The two-day meeting of foreign ministers of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation opens in Jeddah on June 18.

Consequently, reports suggest, an exchange of visits by Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal and his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif was high on Tehran's agenda. Earlier this month, Prince Saud said Zarif had been invited to visit the kingdom in a bid to negotiate better bilateral relations. “We will talk with them in the hope that if there are any differences, they will be settled to the satisfaction of both countries,” he had told reporters in Riyadh on May 13.


Saudi Arabia and its neighbors have been deeply suspicious of Iran's nuclear ambitions and wary of the talks under way between the major powers and Tehran aimed at striking a long-term compromise. Iranian bluster is primarily aimed at Israel, but Saudis believe that nuclear capability would give Iran a crucial strategic edge in the Persian Gulf. Saudi royals have privately egged on the US for military action against. Saudis have long accused Iran of fueling discontent among Shiite communities in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, who are demanding equal political and cultural rights.  Recently Saudi Arabia, among other Arab nations, concluded agreements with western powers for nuclear facility, among other important military infrastructural additions.

In a positive gesture towards Saudi Arabia, Iranian President Hassan Rowhani said after his election last June that he wanted to reach out to Gulf Arab governments as part of efforts to end his country's international isolation.

Beginning with Riyadh’s refusal to take its seat on the UN Security Council Saudi Arabia over Syria issue has showcased a shift in its foreign policy and its denouncing of President Obama for his failure to take strong military action against Syria after chemical weapons killed hundreds of people in a Damascus suburb last August is definitely an assertive part of its new policy. Further, when Obama tacked on to his tour of Europe in March a stop in Riyadh for a meeting with King Abdullah, Obama was greeted by lower-level officials and didn’t even get courtesy dinner. 

Pentagon did not retaliate in equal measure but approached the issue differently. The Obama regime announced the transfer of ten Apache helicopters to Egypt despite the military-backed Saudi supported military regime’s deplorable human rights performance. U.S. gestures that may be meant to appease Saudi Arabia and put it in a more cooperative frame of mind include permitting the first-time delivery of advanced anti-tank, anti-armor TOW missiles (probably from Saudi Arabia’s own stocks, I am told) to allegedly carefully CIA-vetted “moderate” Syrian rebels. Further, Pentagon chief Chuck Hagel is in Jeddah for the first meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council’s (GCC) “joint defense council” where he is no doubt assuring his hosts that Washington is not about to sell them out and will continue plying them with lots of very expensive and sophisticated weapons systems, as well as guarding their borders and sea lanes with US firepower for the indefinite future.

It would be profoundly in the interest of citizens throughout the region if Sunnis and Shias weren’t intent on killing each oth  differently. issuer.  There can be an equilibrium developing between Sunni, or predominantly Sunni, Gulf states and Iran in which there’s competition, perhaps suspicion, but not an active or proxy warfare that is exploited by the enemies of Islam. .

The long-awaited invitation by Saudi Foreign Minister Saud Al-Faisal to his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif is all set to boost the bilateral relations though strong confidence building measures to remove all mutual suspicions over all issues.  The kingdom is on job of finding the succession of King Abdullah and its coincidence with the invitation to Zarif only suggests that Saudi Arabia may be reconsidering its regional strategy.

The Saudi kingdom’s decision to return their ambassador to Beirut offers another signal that they are interested in preventing the conflict next door from further destabilizing Lebanon, and perhaps a broader willingness to reduce Sunni-Shia tensions across the region. The Saudi-Iranian relationship is, of course, critical to any prospect of stabilizing the region, particularly the Levant, as Riyadh and Tehran have been the principal external supporters of the main protagonists in Syria’s catastrophic civil war.

The kingdom might be softening its tough approach to Iran, especially after its unprecedented April 29 parade display of Chinese-supplied missiles capable of hitting Tehran — a gesture that followed the largest military exercise in Saudi history, involving 130,000 men.” Riyadh perhaps wants to go into negotiations after a show of strength.

Clearly, there is an Iranian-Saudi rapprochement on the horizon.