The young Muslims often ask their seniors the reasons behind
Saudi-Iranian animosity. The seniors very conveniently let the youngster to
refer to internet, because they themselves have been brain washed by the
dishonest western media. One of the outcomes of this constant brain washing is
the perception drilled into the minds of Arabs, “Iran is a bigger threat than
Israel”.
Let one begin analysis from the recent history spread over
nearly half a century. Immediately after Islamic Revolution in Iran, Arab
monarchs were made to believe that Iran is their number one enemy, which wants
to dethrone them. United States emerged as the biggest enemy of Iran, as it
failed to contain Islamic Revolution in Iran and also faced a few humiliating
defeats. Having faced some worst defeats the United States, which was solely
dependent on Arab oil prompted Iraq to attach Iran. In this war, spread over
nearly a decade, Saudi-Iraqi petrodollars were used but all in vain, which also
initiated an era of economic sanctions on Iran. Iranians must have lost
hundreds and thousands of soldiers and civilian in that war, but economic
sanctions gave them the courage to keep their economy afloat as well as face
all sorts of external aggression, but they lost their substantial share in
global oil trade.
The next target was Iraq, which proved an easy prey. Not
only many of strategic oil installations were destroyed, the attempts to
fragment it, left it too feeble. Over the years Israel has emerged the biggest
buyer of stolen Iraqi oil. Now the target is Saudi Arabia. Since most of the
Saudi oil is produced from fields located in area having Shia population,
Sunni-Shia rivalry is being fueled. This has started decades ago after Hibzullah
came to rescue Muslims living in Lebanon. The second phase of this proxy was
fought in Syria and third phase is going on in Yemen and Bahrain, all the three
countries having Shia population.
Anyone who does not accept this theory must scan the newspapers
filled with accusations that Iranian and Houthis have attacked the tankers;
dishonest western media is playing a key role in spreading disinformation. This
is helping United States to sell billions of dollars arms to Saudi Arabia;
United States has also previously sold huge arms by promoting ‘Iranian
Phantom’. Now most of the Arabs believe
Iran is a bigger threat as compared to Israel.
Having fallen prey of western propaganda machine, Saudis are
fighting US proxy war with Iran. Over the years they have been made to believe
that keeping Iran out of oil trade, is bringing huge petro dollars to Saudi
Arabia, which have enjoyed the status of ‘largest oil producing country’.
However, most of the Saudi petro dollars are going back to United States, being
the payment for the purchase of arms. Despite having tons of arms, Donald Trump
says, “Saudis can’t survive if we take our hands off”. It is on record that
soon after attacks on oil tankers; United States posted its soldiers in Saudi
Arabia for the safety of Royal family.
This raises a question; does Saudi Arabia pay to the United
States to defend its territory? Even a
person with ordinary wit knows ‘nothing comes free’. Despite buying billions of
dollars arms every year, Saudi Arab has been neither successful in building its
own army, navy and air force nor missile batteries that can help in combating
Iran. Therefore, the monarchy is forced to depend on United States, which still
consider its biggest enemy it savior. It must revisit history and see fate of
Shah of Iran, Anwar Sadat of Egypt and Saddam Hussein of Iraq, to mention a few
names.
It is an opportune moment for both Iran and Saudi Arabia to
restore friendly relation, bid farewell to proxy wars and identify their real
enemies. Hike in crude oil price has benefited United States, which has
attained the status of biggest oil country. However, it goes without saying
that many of US oil companies can go broke if oil prices fall below
US$50/barrel. It is the time to save oil produced by Muslim countries, which
its enemies are buying at huge discount.
Saudi Arab must pay attention to the offer made by
Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh, a member of the Majlis National Security and
Foreign Policy Committee of Iran. He has suggested that Arab countries in the
Persian Gulf region must try to deescalate tension in the region, a move which
Iran welcomes.
“We should move towards de-escalation. Tension is a reality
in Iran’s foreign policy. Iran has many enemies that naturally cause tension.
This situation should be managed. This is the opposite of Trump’s policy of
increasing tension,” he told ISNA in an interview.
He noted, “Certain countries have adopted a different stance
which shows a kind of green light to deescalate tension in the region. These
countries have reached the conclusion that insecurity in the region harms
them.”
Earlier, Abdullah al-Muallemi, the Saudi envoy to the United
Nations, had said that Saudi Arabia seeks “diplomatic interactions” with Iran.
“Saudi Arabia does not want war with Iran, neither in Yemen and nor anywhere
else,” the Mehr news agency quoted him as saying.
Mohammad Javad Jamali Nobandegani, the deputy chairman of
the Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, has said that Saudi
Arabia can be a “strategic partner” of Iran if it abandons following the United
States.
“If Saudi Arabia abandons animosity and stops blindly
obeying America it can have a good strategic partner like the Islamic Republic,
which will be to the benefit of all regional countries and Muslims”, Jamali
Nobandegani told ISNA.
He added that Iran has always “extended hands of friendship
to its neighbors”, citing Qatar as an example in which Iran opened its arms to
the country when it was surrounded from land, sea and air by Saudi Arabia and
the United Arab Emirates.
“Iran has always announced that it has no fundamental
problem with its neighbors and extends hands of friendship to them. As a
powerful country in the Persian Gulf region, we are ready to be a safe harbor
for our neighbors,” he noted.
Iran also had good relationship with Saudi Arabia, the
United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. However, Saudi Arabia and the UAE changed
their policy toward Iran as Tehran seriously entered nuclear negotiations with
the 5+1 countries – the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus
Germany – to end more than a decade of nuclear standoff with the West. Saudi
Arabia was so unhappy with the negotiations that it even sent its then foreign
minister Saudi al-Faisal to Vienna, the venue of the talks, in November 2014 to
undermine the process of nuclear negotiations. Donald Trump has misused the
frosty relationship between Iran and Saudi Arabia to sell more arms to Saudi
Arabia and the UAE.
Iranian Foreign Minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif has rightly proposed
non-aggression pact with regional Arab states to invalidate claims by the Trump
administration that Iran is a threat to its southern Arab neighbors.
