Saudi Iran Conflict written by Tariq Mushtaq

Tariq Mushtaq
The author is a technocrat and
 an international affairs analyst





                                            And Pakistan’s obligations

United States, CIA, FBI, deceitfully and very technically got Saudi Arabia and Iran caught up in a proxy war for dominance of the Middle East and the broader Muslim world that is playing out on battlefields from Yemen to Syria.

Over the past several years, the two countries are engaged in an escalating series of tit-for-tat attacks in the press and on social media, accusing each other of being terrorists, murderers, purveyors of sectarian hatred, and not real Muslims.

At last year’s Hajj, the annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, more than 2,400 people were killed in a stampede, including more than 460 Iranians. Before

most of the victims had even been identified, Iranian leaders issued statements blaming the Saudis for the accident, without realising that Hajj gathering is one of the largest in the world and managed fantastically every year by the Saudi government. Their arrangements are getting exceptionally better and they are trying to provide the best possible assistance to all, who attend.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, leaving aside the difficulties and problems for such a huge gathering, had put all responsibility, in this bitter incident, on Saudi Government blaming that Saudis could not meet the obligations in compliance with the rule of righteousness and fairness; their mismanagement and improper measures that were behind this tragedy.

The fight has bled into this year’s Hajj. Khamenei issued a blistering statement blaming the Saudis “heartless and murderous” for the stampede last year and suggesting they may even have caused the stampede on purpose.

Iranians bar their citizens from attending the Hajj at all this year 2016, claiming the Saudis failed to adequately guarantee the safety of Iranian pilgrims and accusing them of having “blocked the proud and faithful Iranian pilgrim’s path to the Beloved’s House i.e., the Holy Kaaba.

In comments; “Saudi Arabia does not prevent anyone from performing the religious duty,” the Saudi foreign minister, Adel al-Jubeir, said at a news conference. “Iran refused to sign the memorandum and was practically demanding the right to hold demonstrations and to have other advantages … that would create chaos during hajj, which is not acceptable,” he had added.

What the fight is really over;

At base, the fight is because of Iran’s challenging Saudis. In 1979, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini called for overthrowing pro-American monarchies in the Gulf, including the Saudi kingdom. Saudi Arabia is home to the two holiest cities in Islam, and the formation of the Islamic Republic of Iran, an alternative model of Islamic governance, involving elections, challenged Saudi dominance in the Muslim world.

Both countries see themselves as the rightful leaders of the Muslim world. Saudi Arabia’s claim is obviously strong, as it is both the birthplace of Islam and the “custodian” of the two holiest places in Islam, the Prophet Mohammed’s mosque in Medina and Masjid al-Haram in Mecca.

In Iran, the theocracy strongly rejects monarchies. It wasn’t just the existence of the Islamic Republic of Iran that represented a challenge to the Saudi regime; it was also Iran’s desire to export its model of Islamic governance around the Muslim world. Despite being a Shia Muslim theocracy in world where the overwhelming majority of Muslims are Sunni, Iran tried to portray itself as the only state with a true Islamic government.

To further this goal, Iran has long sought to portray the Saudis as incompetent custodians of the holy sites in Mecca and Medina in an effort to damage their credibility, and has even called for an international body to take over administration of these places. In the aftermath of the deadly stampede at last year’s Hajj, Iran jumped at the chance to blame the Saudis, setting off this whole fight.

Iran’s anger at Saudi Arabia over the hajj stampede, it’s really just another excuse for the two countries to make each other look bad in the eyes of the world’s Muslims.

Zarif claims that the worst bloodshed in the region is caused by Wahhabists fighting fellow Arabs and murdering fellow Sunnis. But while Wahhabi-influenced terrorist groups like ISIS and others are certainly to blame for thousands of deaths in the region, the regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria, which is backed by the Iranian government is also responsible for far, far more deaths.

Zarif appealed to the Saudis: “We invite Saudi rulers to put aside the rhetoric of blame and fear, and join hands with the rest of the community of nations to eliminate the scourge of terrorism and violence that threatens us all.”

While the sentiment is nice, it would perhaps be a tad more convincing if Zarif’s own supreme leader hadn’t just a week before literally called the Saudis murderers, or if the appeal didn’t come at the end of a long article in which Zarif himself blames Saudi Arabia for causing all of the violence in the Middle East.

And the Saudis are no angels, either.

The Saudis accuse Iran of having “supported violent extremist groups all over the world,” yet they neglect to mention that, as the Saudi government itself has recently admitted, wealthy Saudi donors have long funneled money to Sunni extremist groups across the Middle East while the regime looked the other way.

Saudi Arabia, with American military assistance, is also engaged in a brutal air war against Iranian-backed Houthi fighters inside Yemen that has sparked a massive humanitarian crisis. The United Nations recently estimated that at least 10,000 civilians have died, and acknowledged that was almost certainly lower than the actual toll.

The bottom line is that both Iran and Saudi Arabia support violent extremists and promote sectarian hatred that fuels conflict and chaos across the Middle East. And no one can deny this fact. It’s evident that Washington’s strategy to create unrest in the region and hold bases is working successfully.

Pakistan is the only country who can play a leading and foremost role to arbitrate and settle the issues between the two which can benefit the end of war in Yemen as well as Syria, and a strong Muslim alliance can be formed which ultimately, can help to a peaceful Middle-East. Once again, a Shah Faisal Bin Abdulaziz is desperately needed.