The Islamic Republic of Iran and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in the new Millennia

Absztrakt (kivonat)

After the fall of Iraq in 2003 a new rivalry started to dominate the Middle East. The Islamic Republic of Iran and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia firstly challenged each other’s interest subtlety and since 2011 it became open. After the new millennia they had clashing interests in a lot of fields. After the commonly favored Afghani and the Iraqi wars, their views on the settlement confronted soon. Later in the Irani nuclear program, the Arab uprisings opposed them and the confrontation culminates today in the Syrian and Yemeni Civil Wars, fighting against each other with proxies. There are other layers of the confrontation too. The Qatari crisis and the Saudi rejection of JCPOA, and protests in the Middle East has their own part in the Saudi-Irani rivalry. My research focuses on the political, economic, historical bases of the countries’ policy towards each other. After the country introductions, the most relevant events for the countries are presented and explained throughout the countries’ narratives. These events are the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq, the Arab uprisings of 2011, the Syrian and Yemeni Civil Wars, the Qatari crisis and the JCPOA (and the US withdrawal from it).