Syria’s distressing civil war has been ongoing for years now with the cause being the dictatorship rule of Bashar al Assad and other local factors. The conflict in Syria is a multi-sided war that has attracted the attention of not only the opposing domestic forces of the Syrian government but also foreign countries and organizations (Barnes-Dacey 2018). The most noticeable proxy conflicts as a result of the Syrian war are between Iran, which has greatly supported the Syrian government and Saudi Arabia that opposes the government of Bashar al Assad. The conflicting views between Iran and Saudi Arabia regarding the Syrian civil war are not primarily founded on the Syrian protests but a struggle and competition of regional supremacy.
Syria war has attracted a number of countries and organizations that, with their own interests at hand, are unable to hold themselves back from interfering. The Syrian conflicts, as well as the proxy wars associated with it, began with a 2003 U.S led invasion of Iraq that caused a fall down of Baghdad’s position against the influence of Iran (Barnes-Dacey 2018). Tehran made use of the invasion of the U.S to conquer and dominate Iraq and afterward spread its dominance in Syria and Lebanon (Barnes-Dacey 2018). This was a great concern to Saudi Arabia as it threatened the former pro-Western regional order. Linkages between Iran and its small Shia community caused a security threat to Saudi Arabia fearing that they would convince other neighboring countries such as Bahrain to join the rebels groups.
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Riyadh saw the Syrian civil war as a background to re-organize the post-2003 regional order. Saudi Arabia saw the Syrian civil war as an opportunity to remove Iranian influence in Syria. If Saudi Arabia succeeds with its mission, it will be in the best position to weaken Iran’s influence in Iraq and Lebanon where their influence was much stronger. A regional realignment was promised to be taken away from Iran by the Syrian opposition after Riyadh’s point of view was expressed (Barnes-Dacey 2018). This signal by the Syrian’s opposition forces was taken seriously by Iran since it threatened its regional position. Moreover, Iran believed that the origin of this threat had something to do with the U.S-Israel's interests to transform the Islamic Republic. Iran believed that the US and its allies are using Saudi Arabia to weaken the wider position of Iran. As a result, Iran accused Saudi Arabia of being an informer of the U.S in the Persian Gulf as well as having U.S interests rather than Islamic interests.
Iran, the main supporter of Assad’s government, has a great striving plan when it comes to Syria. The country has deployed military troops from the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps in Syria to help Assad’s forces to strengthen their control over Western Syria (Bremmer 2018). This is in addition to the billions of dollars of credit lines and oil subsidies extended to Damascus. With this move, Iran’s ambitions are to win over the plum energy and construction contracts that Syria will Issue when rebuilding the nation once the war has ended. Moreover, Iran is looking forward to a post-nuclear deal in the event the JCPOA is broken by the USA (Bremmer 2018). Saudi Arabia and its allies are concerned with Iran’s ambitions, especially security establishment and instillations it has across the region. Saudi Arabia fears that if Syria becomes Iran’s outpost in the Levant, its influence in the region will dwindle.
Saudi Arabia and Iran have been engaging proxy wars since the Iranian Revolution in 1979 that saw the creation of a religious Shiite state (Chen, 2017). The conflict between. The two countries have been involved in the cold war for decades due to various reasons. Geopolitical, economic and sectarian influences have become the major causes of the cold war between Saudi Arabia and Iran with each wanting to be recognized as the supreme state in the Middle East. Moreover, foreign interference has fueled the rivalry between the two countries. Iran and Saudi Arabia enjoy support from different foreign countries with totaling conflicting policies, making it difficult for the countries to coexist harmoniously. Saudi enjoys the USA support while Iran has the backup of China and Russian.
References
Barnes-Dacey J. (2018). Saudi–Iranian Rivalry and the Impact on the Syrian Conflict. London School of Economics and Political Science . https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/mec/2018/06/22/saudi-iranian-rivalry-and-the-impact-on-the-syrian-conflict/
Bremmer I. (2018). Why the Syrian Civil War Is Becoming Even More Complex. TIME USA, LLC. https://time.com/5229691/syria-trump-putin-saudi-arabia/
