Sager and Mousavian warn of the consequences if Saudi Arabia and Iran remain in conflict, writing that “we remain at the mercy of a single miscalculation that could turn the protracted cold war between our states hot, potentially ushering in disastrous consequences for the entire region”.
They claim that both countries perceive the other as seeking to dominate in the region, with Riyadh convinced that Iran is trying to encircle the kingdom with its allied proxy supporters while Tehran views Saudi Arabia as in alliance with the US to undermine the Islamic Republic.
“Riyadh charges Iran with interfering in the internal affairs of sovereign states like Yemen, Syria, Lebanon, Bahrain, and Iraq; Tehran sees Saudi Arabia doing the same in these very countries.”
âEven amid escalating tensions, Iran and Saudi Arabia engaged in fruitful dialogue over Iranian participation in the Hajj pilgrimage.â Umrah pilgrimage in Mecca, 2020. Photograph: Saudi Ministry Of Hajj Handout/EPA
Back in May 2019, we â an Iranian former diplomat and a Saudi chair of the Gulf Research Center â called for dialogue between our countriesâ respective leaders. We warned that the alternative would increase tensions that could boil over into a catastrophic confrontation.
Since then we have witnessed a string of attacks on Saudi and Iranian oil tankers in international waters; a major strike on Saudi Aramco facilities at Abqaiq and Khurais; a close brush with conflict between Iran and the United States in the aftermath of General Qassem Soleimaniâs killing by a US drone; and then, late last year, the killing of a top nuclear scientist in Iran. While tempers seem to have cooled since then, w