Saudi-Iranian Tensions

Posted: January 21st, 2016

By Alireza Nader

Alireza Nader is a senior international policy analyst at the nonprofit, nonpartisan RAND Corporation, and author of "The Days After a Deal With Iran: Continuity and Change in Iranian Foreign Policy." His research has focused on Iran's political dynamics, elite decisionmaking, and Iranian foreign policy. His commentaries and articles have appeared in a variety of publications and he is widely cited by the U.S. and international media. Nader's other RAND publications include Israel and Iran: A Dangerous Rivalry; The Next Supreme Leader: Succession in the Islamic Republic of Iran; Saudi-Iranian Relations Since the Fall of Saddam: Rivalry, Cooperation, and Implications for U.S. Policy; The Rise of the Pasdaran: Assessing the Domestic Roles of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. Prior to joining RAND, Nader served as a research analyst at the Center for Naval Analyses. He is a native speaker of Farsi. Nader received his M.A. in international affairs from The George Washington University.

Relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran are arguably at a historic low. Saudi Arabia has cut off diplomatic relations with Iran in response to mob violence against Saudi diplomatic facilities in Tehran and Mashhad. Those attacks were a reaction to Riyadh’s execution of a prominent Shi’a Saudi activist who had criticized the Saudi regime. Saudi Arabia has been a close American partner for decades, while Iran’s revolutionary government has been Washington’s foremost opponent in the Middle East since 1979. But the resolution of the Iranian nuclear crisis through diplomacy has removed an obstacle to U.S.-Iran engagement on a number of regional conflicts, especially in Syria. The Saudi-Iranian rivalry threatens to obstruct American efforts to resolve the Syrian conflict and fight the Islamic State and other extremist groups.

It may be easy to conclude that the Saudi-Iranian rivalry is the result of long held religious and ideological animosities. Saudi Arabia, home of Mecca and Medina, Islam’s two holiest sites, seeks leadership over the Muslim Middle East, while Shi’a majority Iran views Saudi Arabia’s Sunni Wahhabi ideology as a challenge to its stability and regional ambitions. But the current fight between Riyadh and Tehran is also motivated by geopolitical and economic competition. Saudi Arabia views Iran as an ascendant power in much of the region. Iran sees Saudi Arabia as promoting unrest in Iran and actively opposing its regional allies.

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