A Workshop about \ ANALYZING THE POLITICAL AND MILITARY RIVALRY BETWEEN IRAN AND SAUDI ARABIA IN THE MIDDLE EAST

ABSTRACT The Middle East has become the center of conflict, the rise and fall of empires, but the most two remaining powers who survived include the Islamic Republic of Iran and Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and in addition to them, modern Turkey as a legal inheritor of the Ottoman Empire. There is an ongoing deeply-rooted conflict between both Iran and Saudi Arabia which is described as the term ‘Middle East Cold War’. The conflict wages multiple dimensions in terms of geopolitics, economics, and sectarianism to pursue regional hegemony respectively. Proxy wars for regional dominance between the two countries lead to chaos igniting Sunni-Shia conflict across the Middle East spanning from the war in Syria and Yemen to attempts to establish a foothold in Iraq and Lebanon. However, the history of this state level conflict dates back to the Iranian Revolution era in 1979. Prior to that period, there were good diplomatic relations between both states ruled by the Shah and the King given that both governments were Western-backed monarchs. The 2011 Arab Spring changed geopolitical dynamics with the fight for dominance in the Middle East reaching a new level. Moreover, during the Arab spring, both countries supported opposing sides in a regional conflict. Iran openly spoke in support of the revolutions taking place in Tunisia, Egypt, and Bahrain. While the Cold war between Iran and Saudi Arabia has adopted a most aggressive stance in Yemen other countries have not been spared in Iraq, Lebanon, and Bahrain the countries playing a critical role by supporting governments and political players along sectarian lines. Keywords: Middle East, Proxy War, Sunni-Shia Conflict, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Arab Spring