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.