The international community always declares ‘Sectarianism’ as a triggering factor behind all the conflict and clashes in the Middle East, and it injects this idea in the mind of the researcher in such a sophisticated manner which does not allow them to think beyond it. Despite having sectarian difference both, Riyadh and Tehran kept engaging each other in a cordial relation during Raza Shah’s times. it was not the Shia ideology behind the Iranian Revolution which turned the two friends into foes, but the political struggle for the dominance in the Islamic World. The Iranian revolution is considered by Saudi Arabia as a ‘Kick-off’ to challenge its supremacy, which resulted the Kingdom began to struggle to sustain its superior position through alliance in the region.
In the last quarter of 20th century, the two regional rivals remained counterpart in numerous ups and downs, while President Akbar Rafsanjani tried to cool down the hostility temperature in his tenure, but it provoked when the United States’ troops positioned in Iraq to topple the President Saddam Hussain’s regime.
The United States’ invasion in Iraq endangered the neighboring Iran which stimulated its struggle for the acquisition of Nuclear Weapon-considered as a threat to Middle East peace and stability. As a reaction, on December 26th, 2006 the United Nations Security Resolution passed resolution 1737 to impose diplomatic and economic sanctions on Iran to roll back its nuclear-related activities for the acquisition of a nuclear weapon. Later, these sections were lifted in 2015throughthe Iran Nuclear Deal agreement.
The 2011’sseries of protests for regime change in the Middle East and North Africa named ‘Arab Spring’ shook the political dynamics of the region, and it gave the opportunity to two regional rivals, Iran-backed by Russia and likewise Saudi Arabia by the United States to widen the area of influence by supporting state and non-state actors, while Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen are the main ground of confrontation of their agents. Up till now, six resolutions regarding Syrian civil war have been vetoed by Russia solely, while six times China vetoed with Russia. The United Nation was established to bring peace and avoid wars around the world, unfortunately, it has failed badly on Syrian crises. Contemporary, the Middle East is depicting the situation of USSR-US Cold War which stated after World War II. During the Cold War, the United States and Union of Socialist Soviet Republican did not confront each other directly but remained involved on different proxy wars.
The Middle East crises are not the sectarian one, neither Iran nor Saudi Arabia wants the destabilizing Middle East. It is the interest of the great powers that keeping the region in turbulence in order to secure their own national interest. Today, not only the developed states but also developing and under-developed state proudly portray themselves the part of 21st century. States around the world join hand for innovation and developing state of the art technology. Regrettably, these are not cooperating for the peace in the Middle East.
The United Nation’s member states are contesting together against Islamic State-a terrorist organization mostly targeting Iraq and Syria. Since Second World War, the History is witnessed that the Middle East attempted five times to have a combined military force for its regional security in diverse appearance i.e. the Middle East command, The Baghdad Pact, The Gulf Cooperation, The Arab League’s joint Defence Pact, The Middle East Defence Organization, unluckily none of them succeeded by cause of less cooperation from member states due to diversion in organization’s formulation objects or the member states did not find any charm in that particular coalition. Since the Arab Spring, The Kingdom took three times to have NATO- like structure i.e. The GCC Militarily Force, The GCC Regional Police force and the Joint Arab Force, these steps didn’t result different as previous. In 2015- the Saudi’s crown prince Muhammad Bin Salman- famously as ‘Mr. Everything’ presented the idea to establish a combined Military force for counter-terrorism named ‘Islamic Military Counter Terrorism Alliance’(IMCTC). However, its foundations are not clear as firstly the IMCTC do not have included any state with Shia dominated government. Secondly, it is an Islamic military alliance then why US-a non-Muslim country is a part of it? The reports suggest that this military alliance was formulated not to counter terrorism, but to counter Iran’s growing influence in the region.
Let’s have a glimpse of developed countries- having both the Catholic and Protestant population, the question arises do these two schools don’t have differences? Why they don’t go for war? The researchers have valid arguments to answer these questions. Some of them may argue in the context of literacy, while others may talk about Islamic ideology, while, one cam discuss Shia-Sunni grievances.
In the Middle East, Russia and the United States is sponsoring and supporting Iran and Saudi Arabia respectively against each other. The United States and Russia are at top of the list of arm exporting countries, while Saudi Arabia and Iran are their major client in the Middle East. By connecting the dots, it can easily be observed the one country which characterizes itself peace-preacher is the main arms supplier. Do we call it the ambiguous role of the United States? By checking the basic foundation of Islam, the message of peace can be carried out. So why Islamic sects are to be considered the basic reason behind Iran-Saudi Arabia rivalry?
Last year, the Trump administration’s decision to withdraw from the ‘Iran nuclear Deal’ agreement is also criticized by President Barack Obama, and however the leaders of signatory countries expressed penitence over it, even peace cannot be attained between two states by empowering one state and weakening the other as the United States did by signing US-Saudi Arabia Arm Deal Agreement with Saudi Arabia in 2017 to supply armament periodically for 10 years to strengthen the Kingdom militarily, and while in case of Iran, the United States withdrew from Iran-nuclear deal agreement to bring back Tehran under the umbrella of economic sanctions to make it week state in the region.
Peace in the Middle East cannot be attained without the termination of the external actor entanglement in the internal affairs of the region. The two rival states, Iran and Saudi Arabia’s disagreements can only be addressed through appropriate actions by hitting their point of departure.
