Middle East through the lens of Bitter Rivals (Iran vs Saudi Arabia)- Part II [Review]

This is in continuation to the previous post [here].

War against terror: Iraq War

The situation remained more or less silent in Middle East till the attack on US on 09-11-2001. In the light of 9-11, US started its war on terror, which was expanded to Saddam Hussein from Al Qaeda. Saudi Arabia was against US intervention in the region but the Saudi-US relations were already ebbing as 15 out of 19 hijackers were Saudi citizens. US war-machinery under Bush Administration, was led by Dick Cheney, Bush’s Vice President, destabilized Iraq by toppling Saddam Hussein. Meanwhile President Bush appointed Paul Bremer, as Presidential Envoy to Iraq on May 9, 2003, with authority to rule-by-decree and he came up this radical policy, popularly known as Debathification, of removing the Sunnis (from Baa'th party) from the administration. This sudden vacuum in administration gave way to local violence and Sunni-insurgency and consequential formation of Shia militia. This policy created space for both Iran and Saudis to meddle in internal affairs of Iran in their covert ways. Shia-Sunni conflict was at a peak. In the past, Iraq population was dominated by Shia, however, peacefully administered by the Sunni leaders. Shi’ism took dominance after the de-Baathification and resulted in civil war. Sunni leader Abu Musad was leading the Sunni rebels in Iraq. Iraq had witnessed lot of instability afterwards and remains unstable to this day. ISIS captured few of the cities including Baghdad, and Mosul. At that juncture, again, Iran intervened and set free the city of Mosul by indirect support to the locals.

Syrian Civil War

Next major conflict in the region was Syrian Civil War which erupted in Mar 2011, in wake of Arab Spring, and continuing till this day. Aleppo and Damascus were the two epicentres of the unrest. Iran has been supporting Assad regime from collapsing during the Arab Spring. Assad all along has been claiming that it’s the western power, hand-in-glove with Saudis which   instigated the civil war in prefabricated scenario. Sectarian identity were found among the groups to further the cause by Iran and Saudi Arabia. All this mayhem gave a fertile ground to organizations like IS and Al-Nusra. Syria war took worst turn, when International players started taking interest and it is worth mentioning that different rebel groups have backing of different foreign powers. The major parties supporting the Syrian Government are Iran, Russia and the Lebanese Hezbollah. Syrian rebel groups received political, logistic and military support from the United States, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Britain, France, Israel and the Netherlands.

Under the aegis of operation Timber Sycamore and other clandestine activities, CIA operatives and U.S. special operations troops have trained and armed nearly 10,000 rebel fighters at a cost of $1 billion a year since 2012. However, later Russia started aerial bombing to support Assad regime, which ultimately resulted the war to end in his favour and the uprising was considerably contained by the Assad regime.

Meanwhile, US had nuclear deal with Iran to curtail nuclear adventures which further upset the Saudi Arabia.

Yemen War

The poorest country in the Middle East, Yemen, faced another manifestation of this rivalry. Yemeni Civil War is an ongoing conflict that began in 2015 between two factions: the Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi-led Yemeni government, backed by Saudis and the Shia-dominated Houthi armed movement, backed by Iran. As soon as the uprising began, the capital Sanah was taken under control by Houthi rebels and the Hadi government was about to get overthrown. The Saudi Kingdom decisively intervened considering Yemen as its backyard whereas Iranian felt the obligation to protect the Yemeni Shia people . This intervention came in the form of relentless bombing (popularly names as "Operation Decisive Storm") and left Yemen unstable till date. 

Conclusion

As it can be seen from this discussion, most of the wars or insurgency or conflicts in the Middle East are the proxy wars led by Saudi Arabia and Iran. Islamic Revolution in Iran has irreversibly changed the power-dynamics in the region forever and the world is witnessing its butterfly effect in every corner.

Middle East through the lens of Bitter Rivals (Iran vs Saudi Arabia)- Part I [Review]

Bitter Rivals (Iran and Saudi Arabia) a 3-hour long documentary by Frontline, covering almost all the major events in Middle-East, post-Iranian revolution, through the lens of equation between Iran and Saudi Arabia. In fact, as we would learn by the end of the documentary there is not a single conflict in the Middle East which doesn’t have a Saudi Vs Iran angle. The region has always been a hotbed of conflicts, chaos and clashes since medieval age. However, the genesis of the contemporary conflicts in the region lies in the Islamic Revolution in Iran. In fact, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that today’s Shia-Sunni conflict in Muslim world has its roots pre dominantly in the Islamic Revolution!  

Islamic Revolution

Iranian Revolution back in 1979 was led by Ayatollah Khomeini, which resulted in removal of the US backed Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi’s monarchy in Iran. It was a revolution in many senses. Firstly, it substituted monarchy by the democracy and Ayatollah became the supreme leader of the country. Secondly, it revived Islamic values in the region and many countries re-introduced Sharia. Thirdly, it has been seen as the second most important event in Shiite sect, after Battle of Karbala, which deepened the Shia-Sunni rift. Fourthly, entire region ruled by monarchy was apprehensive of export of revolution in the region and didn’t take these revisionist developments very well, especially Saudi Royalty, which belonged to the Sunni Sect and enjoyed good relations with the United Sates.

Revival of Wahabism: Saudi, Pakistan & Afghanistan 

Ayatollah Khomeini tried to revive the Shia sect in the far-flung areas, including Saudi Kingdom. This led to various uprising in Saudi Arabia which was brutally crushed. In the same year, seizure of Mecca (holiest site of Muslim world) was carried out by Mahdis, under the leadership of al-Qahtani, a Wahabi-fringe, to bring down the House of Sauds which was taken back through the siege. In response to the same, Saudi Kingdom became reactionary and tried to represent itself as guardian of Islamic values in the Muslim world. Religious establishments were given money (petro dollars) and resources to promote and propagate the Wahabism and Sharia in response to Iranian attempt to export revolution. Saudi Arabia encouraged Pakistan (Sunni dominated) for spreading Wahabhism through pumping money in madarsas, and encouraging religious practices of Islam.  President of Pakistan, Zia-ul-Hq who came into power through a coup helped Saudi Arabia to Islamise the country. Saudis couldn’t have been in more luck when the Soviet Union was bent to spread communism in the belt during cold war era. This invasion of Afghanistan gave Saudis, a just reason to intervene in the region. Saudi Arabia grabbed the opportunity and the war was portrayed as Jihad (religious war) against godless communist. US actively supported (Cartar doctrine) Saudi Arabia and Pakistan to resist the expansion of Soviet Union in Gulf countries. US in collaboration with Pakistan and Saudi Arabia formed Afghanistan Mujahdeen (rebel groups) to fight against Soviet Union. This way, Pakistan ISI was militarized by USA to keep a check on Soviet Union thus promoting jihad at global level. Meanwhile Saudi Arabia continued to spread Wahabi teachings and Sharia law in Pakistan. The militarization of the area with the combined force of Saudi Arabia and USA resulted in expulsion of Soviet Union.

Lebanon War

Afterwards many regional wars were not-so-indirectly supported by Iran and Saudi. In fact, it was the Iran vs Saudi Cold war of the region which was fought at different theatres by different players. First of them was Lebanon war in 1980s. The city of Nabitia was invaded by Israel while Palestinian army was thrown out. Iran supported Lebanon in driving out the Israel and kept US and Saudi Arabia at bay. The local rebel groups were indirectly trained by IRGC and Hezabollah came into existence which brought the glory to the local people. It was Iran’s first successful experiment of forming a Shia militia outside the Iranian borders. Hezbollah remains an unformidable force in the region to this day.

Iran-Iraq War

Another, decisive regional war was Iran-Iraq war which lasted for almost 8 years. The war has its genesis in 1979 when Khomeini led the Iranian revolution. With the apprehension of export of the revolution, Iraq led by Saddam with the intention to topple the newly-formed Ayatollah’s regime in Iran and capture new territory, made move into Iran. Iran, although ill-equipped, retaliated with full force of the civilians available in the country, including the children which were popularly known as "human wave attacks". The war turned out to be brutal as chemical weapons were used for the first time by Iraq. Iran was successful in pushing back the Iraqi army and decided to make offensive attack after being defensive for many days. After 8 years of huge devastation from both the sides, and arriving at a lose-lose situation, UN brokered a ceasefire in 1988.