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The ties that bind Iran and Saudi
Arabia
By Hooman Peimani
Iran's arrest and extradition to Saudi Arabia of
16 suspected members of al-Qaeda illustrates that, in
addition to their expanding political and economic
relations, security ties between Iran and Saudi Arabia
are also growing.
This is despite Washington's
efforts to isolate Iran and to prevent its influence in
many regions, particularly in the strategically
important oil-rich Persian Gulf, where Iran and Saudi
Arabia act as regional powers.
Relations between
Saudi Arabia and Iran have gone through several phases
over the past two decades. The 1979 Iranian revolution
ended decades of friendly ties between the two Persian
Gulf countries. Tehran's revolutionary regime accused
the Saudis of corruption and of acting as an "American
puppet" with which it could not have friendly relations.
For its turn, the Saudi government accused its Iranian
counterpart of seeking to destabilize the Saudi
political system through its "export-of-revolution"
policy.
The Iran-Iraq war worsened Saudi-Iranian
relations in the 1980s. Saudi Arabia took sides with
Iraq and availed to the Iraqi government its gigantic
financial capability and its impressive influence in the
Arab world and elsewhere. The Saudi pro-Iraqi policy
made it Iran's number one enemy in the Persian Gulf.
Although the war ended in 1988, the Saudis kept that
status, a result of Iran's heavy losses in human lives
and massive destruction of its industries and
infrastructure during the eight-year war. In such a
situation, the Saudis' fear of Iranian-backed efforts to
topple their regime kept their mistrust and hostility
towards the Iranians alive.
Saudi-Iranian ties
began to improve only after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait
and its subsequent 1991 Persian Gulf war. Iran's taking
sides with the Kuwaitis and the anti-Iraqi coalition of
the Arab Persian Gulf states helped put Iran's ties with
its southern Arab neighbors on a friendly path. In
particular, Saudi-Iranian relations, especially their
diplomatic ones, began to improve, as reflected by
exchanges of high-ranking delegates between the two
countries in the 1990s, even though various remaining
grievances on both sides prevented their rapid
expansion.
The 1997 election of Mohammad Khatami
as Iranian president acted as a catalyst in
Iranian-Saudi relations. His pursuit of a foreign policy
aimed at tension reduction and improving ties with
foreign countries paved the way for a rapid expansion of
ties between Iran and its southern Arab neighbours. In
particular, that policy put Iranian-Saudi relations on a
stable and friendly path. Their bilateral relations
encompassing various fields, such as political,
economic, educational and security, have since grown on
a steady basis. Their well-coordinated policies within
the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries over
issues such as oil pricing and production quotas for the
member states have clearly reflected the depth of their
closeness.
A major indicator of warming
relations between the two former foes has been their
cooperation on security affairs, including regional
security. As the largest and the richest Persian Gulf
countries with certain influence, Iran and Saudi Arabia
have the capabilities to affect the pace of events in
their region. Thus their cooperation is a necessity for
ensuring security in the region, which contains over 60
percent of the world's proven oil reserves in addition
to a phenomenal amount of gas (Iran and Qatar have the
world's second and the third largest gas deposits,
respectively). Growing Iranian-Saudi relations and
efforts towards regional security have promoted Iraq to
express concern about what it describes as their
"anti-Iraqi coalition".
Iran and Saudi Arabia
have signed a few security agreements since 1997,
including one in April 2002 during the official visit to
Iran of Saudi Minister of the Interior Amir Nayef bin
Abdulaziz. In the absence of any official statements by
the two signatories on the specifics of such agreements,
there is little doubt, if any at all, that they should
include their cooperation towards the elimination of
extremist and terrorist organizations endangering their
stability, among other objectives. Against this
background, the release of information by Saudi Foreign
Minister Amir Saud al-Faisal on Iran's handing over of
suspected al-Qadea members to the Saudi authorities
should not surprise anyone.
Apart from its
assumed obligations under the security agreements, Iran
has every reason to seek to eliminate the remnants of
the anti-Iranian Taliban and all Afghanistan-based
groups under its protection, including al-Qaeda. They
all helped the Taliban remain in power through a variety
of means, including by taking part in the Taliban's
atrocities in Afghanistan. As the main supporter of the
Northern Alliance (along with Russia), Iran welcomed the
Taliban's fall from power. Undoubtedly, Iran has no
reason to take a chance on the reemergence of the
Taliban or any like-minded regime.
Uprooting the
Taliban and their supporters, such as al-Qaeda, is a
necessary step towards that objective. As well, the
latter also serves the Iranian objectives of security in
the Persian Gulf shared by the Saudis and of improving
ties with Arab countries. As mentioned by Saud, such
objectives have motivated the Iranians to extradite
since February 100 Arab nationals who crossed into Iran
from Afghanistan to their respective countries - that is
Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.
Saudi-Iranian
cooperation is not a new development and thus its
continuation is perfectly understandable within the
context of relations between the two largest nations on
the northern and southern shores of the Persian Gulf.
However, the expansion of such relations at a time when
the American governments is seeking Iran's isolation
indicates the determination of the largest regional ally
of the United states, Saudi Arabia, to pursue its own
regional interests. And apparently, these interests do
not necessarily wholly coincide with those of the United
States.
Dr Hooman Peimani works as an
independent consultant with international organizations
in Geneva and does research in international
relations
(©2002 Asia Times Online Co, Ltd.
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