The execution of Sheikh Nimr al Nimr by Saudi Arabia is heating up the Cold War in the Middle East. The tension between Saudi Arabia and Iran has been ratcheting up since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. But more so, the recent Iranian nuclear deal has begun to change the geopolitics of the region forever.
The latest execution of the leading Shiite cleric in Saudi Arabia was intended to ruffle feathers in Tehran and provoke a reaction. Iran responded just like Saudi Arabia wanted. Under the leadership of King Salman, the foreign policy of Saudi Arabia reflects one of a paranoid regime that is potentially on the precipice of collapse due to falling oil prices and slowly being eclipsed by Iran.
What Has Happened So Far
Ever since the implementation of the Petrodollar pact, the security guarantor for Saudi Arabia has been the US. But with the removal of Saddam in 2003, the regional balance of power was perturbed. The new government in Iraq represented the Shiite majority and many within the government had links to Iran. A new era of Iran-Iraq relations were ushered in to the detriment of Saudi Arabia. The Iraqi wall that circumscribed Iran had crumbled and allow for the Shiite expansion into the Levant. Iran was granted unhindered access to its allies in Syria and Lebanon through Iraq, creating a “Shiite Crescent”. This northern expansion has created a perceived semi-encirclement of Saudi Arabia.
All the while this was happening; the US began to pivot away from the Middle East to East Asia under a new strategic imperative. These dramatic changes have made the royal family uneasy about the US security commitment to the regime. To exacerbate a tense situation, the Arab Spring made the Saudis began to realize that there was an internal existential threat to their hold on power.
The Saudi royal family became proactive in matters dealing with its security. It needed to rebalance power in the region in order to prevent an Iranian hegemony from establishing and subdue any internal dissent. In order to quell the internal outrage, the government increased subsidies to its citizens and imprisoned many who were Shiite. Next, the Saudi military intervened in Bahrain to quell an uprising by the Shiite majority against its Sunni rulers. The rebellion was suppressed but the Saudis suspected Iranian involvement behind the rebellion.
Soon thereafter, Yemen began to fall into disarray as different factions began an uprising against the dictatorship of Saleh. When the Houthi rebels, Shiite tribesmen backed by Iran, began to make advances towards the capital, Saudi Arabia once again got involved in hopes of crushing yet another Shiite rebellion at its doorstep. Except this time it appears Saudi Arabia has created a quagmire of its own. The costly foray has begun to take its toll on the interventionist Saudi foreign policy. While its forces are bogged down in Yemen, Saudi Arabia’s backing of Syrian rebels against Assad has fallen to the wayside as the world unites to battle ISIS. The Saudi-led initiative to remove Assad has failed.
The final ingredient for the perfect storm has been the dramatic decline of oil prices. When the price of oil began to fall in late 2014, it was due to an oversupply in the world markets and a weakening demand. But there was a way out, Saudi Arabia, the nation with the largest oil reserves, could have reduced supplies, which in turn would raise prices but they did not. The rationale behind this move was to regain market share rather than profits by eliminating all the American shale producers who had become a threat to the Saudi oil supply. The US, who was once the primary recipient of Saudi oil, is on the path to becoming a major exporter herself. In a bid to outdo the US producers, Saudi Arabia engaged in a game of chicken to push prices as low as it can go to drive all competition out. But there has been blowback, the falling prices have caused the Saudis to go into deficit spending and diminished its cash reserves. The continued low prices are causing internal pressures within the country to arise. There are rumblings of a potential Saudi collapse, which can have devastating effects for the region as well as US strategic interest. With all the short comings going on with its policies, the Saudis are looking for a way to divert attention from them.
Rally Around the Flag
The best way for the regime to distract attention is to create a wag the dog effect. The Saudis knew the execution of its Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr would create a firestorm. The outcome was exactly what they desired; protest around the Shiite world and especially in Iran where the Saudi embassy was burned. This action set in motion a diplomatic tit for tat, which further caused a wider rift between the Saudis and Iranians. To further inflame tensions, a Saudi missile “accidently” struck the Iranian embassy in Yemen. This back and forth between the two nations is exacerbating tensions in an already anxious region of the world. But the winners in all this is the Saudi royal family who are able to shift focus to Iran from its recent foreign failures in Yemen and Syria as well as its internal economic bubble.
The Saudi regime is acting “irrationally” in order to take measures it perceives necessary to prevent its own collapse. With the fall of Iraq and the nuclear deal, the balance of power has begun to shift in Iran’s favor. The Saudi attempt to rebalance power in the region has caused it to go further to the brink of collapse by its recent short comings. As the US slowly withdraws from the region and oil prices continue to tumble, Saudi Arabia finds itself cornered. Its foreign policy is being driven with a sense of urgency based on a paranoid belief that its collapse is imminent. Thus, it can be expected that provocative actions in the form of military or economic by Saudi Arabia can be a norm in order to shift attention from its short comings until its house is back in order or the regime collapses.