Snakes in the grass even in Islam

The Saudis and the ayatollahs, Sunnis and Shiites, Arabs and Persians: the struggle dates way back. Iraqi spoils now whet new appetites and light new fuses.

The notion of a natural rivalry may feel out of place among the scientific terms that usually define the field of international relations, but it perfectly describes the relationship between Iran and Saudi Arabia. In addition to their ethnic differences (Iran is Persian while Saudi Arabia is Arab) and religious differences (Iran is Shia and Saudi Arabia is
Sunni), these two large countries share a geopolitical rivalry that dates back at least to the foundation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1932. This rivalry is visible in the two countries’ clear differences and their alignment on opposing sides of issues across the Persian Gulf region and the Middle East.
When the nation of Saudi Arabia’s territory extended onto the Persian Gulf that borders the far more ancient country of Iran, the historic conflict for Islamic hegemony that marked the relationship between the two countries also gained a geopolitical and territorial dimension. We can even see this division in adjectives used to describe the Persian Gulf itself: it is known as the Persian Gulf to the Iranians and to the international community, but the Saudis and the other five Arab states of the Gulf Cooperation Council refer to it as the Arabic Gulf.

Since then, the Gulf has become the epicentre of an historic contest. The aforementioned differences have also led to two different forms of government in Iran and Saudi Arabia, each considering itself to be the genuinely Islamic form, and its rival to be a usurper of the legitimate Islamic order. Naturally, the two states hold differing opinions on regional order, beginning with the legitimacy or illegitimacy of the United States as a global power. The US presence in the Middle East has been opposed by Iran ever since Ayatollah Khomenei’s revolution. Meanwhile the Saudis have considered the United States to be a key pillar of regional order since 1945, an ally that has enabled the Kingdom to become both a regional.

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