Religion and Politics

How the deadly mix changed the contours of West Asia forever. An extract

Iqbal S. Hasnain

It was after the US-British invasion of Iraq in 2003, however, that the entire regional dynamics went for a total shake-up. With Saddam Hussein, Saudis had been able to present as an effective counterweight to Iran’s regional ambitions. After the invasion, however, the new Shia-dominated government in Iraq was supported by Iran, upsetting the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Saudi had never imagined a major Shia Arab country in their neighbourhood. It rightly feared Iran’s increasing interference in the region, for the first time, challenging its supremacy in the neighbourhood.

Saudi Arabia was actively involved in Syria to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad. It was mainly aimed at destroying the Syrian-Iranian alliance. The American invasion of Iraq in 2003, the Lebanon War in 2006 and the Iran-Iraq-Syria pipeline programme, all led to strengthening the ties between Iran and Syria. These developments, in turn, worsened the ties between Syria and Saudi Arabia. The Assad regime of Syria received support from Iran and the local Shia Alawite population. Saudi Arabia is also afraid of its Shia population in the eastern province of the kingdom rising against the government, especially after the Arab Spring. Just over 74 per cent of the Syrian population practices Sunni Islam and hence Saudi Arabia hopes to get an upper hand in case the Assad regime falls. Therefore, Saudi Arabia sends a large number of young jihadis to wage war against the Alawite political regime.

Traditionally, majority of the Syrian Sunnis followed Sufi traditions and rejected the bigoted Wahhabi-Salafi ideology, advocated by Saudi Arabia. Jihadi groups like Free Syrian Army (FSA) and Jabhat al-Nusra were allied to the al-Qaeda and were actively supported by it financially and logistically. After the entry of ISIS, the Syrian civil war morphed into a complete sectarian war, instead of a political struggle for democracy.

Saudi-Iranian Competition

The history of the Saudi-Iranian competition is deep and dates back to the seventh century. Saudi Arabia was established in 1927 as the Kingdom of Nejd and Hejaz, and a Saudi-Iranian friendship treaty was signed in 1929. Iran is primarily a Shia-majority nation, while the ultra-conservative Wahhabi-Salafi sect, which detests Shia Muslims, dominates in Saudi Arabia. The reign of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who ruled Iran, between 1941 and 1979, was secular. He maintained an excellent relationship with Israel and Saudi Arabia. Gregory Aftandilian, an expert on Middle East politics, observed in The Arab Weekly that Iran and Saudi Arabia were on the same side of the global Cold War. However, the latter was worried that the Shah was trying to recreate the Persian Empir