Iran
has recently been keener on participating with the international community to
help solve the Syrian conflict and try to bring more stability to the Middle
East.
The
manifestation of this has been the participation in the meeting that occurred
recently in Vienna. Iran sat at the same table with the US, Russia but also
twenty other countries including Saudi Arabia.
Unfortunately
perhaps the biggest takeaway of this meeting is not an actual solution for the
Syrian conflict but the fact that an old rivalry seems to be yet another
obstacle in the way of solving this conflict. In Vienna Iran has threaten to
leave the negotiations because of Saudi Arabia “unproductive attitude”.
This
once again demonstrate the difficult balance that the US needs to try to find
in the Middle East when trying to deal with the two regional powers fighting
for local hegemony. Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shia Iran have had a conflicting relationship
throughout their history. However this has been exacerbated after the Iranian
revolution and when the country political elite became more tied with the
country religious elite.
After
finally striking a deal with Iran on its nuclear facilities, the US quickly saw
a negative reaction from its more historical ally in the region in Saudi
Arabia. Riyadh fears that this might actually give more freedom for Iran to get
the nuclear bomb.
Hoping
to appease some of these negative feelings the US has recently made a deal with
Saudi Arabia to sell them aircraft carriers, thus also allowing them to
increase their military force. So an argument can be made that both of them are
actually stronger than before and less likely to deter in hostility towards one
another.
Ultimately
we might wonder now that Iran wants to be more of a player in international
issues in the Middle East how the US will try to balance its polices there to
keep the two rival engaged and also be able to solve issues like Syria. This
will prove in any case to be very complicated with two opposed ideologies in
power in each country.
Sources:
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