Iran and Saudi Arabia: Navigating the Path to Reconciliation

Abstract

This thesis seeks to cover the shift of relation between Iran and Saudi Arabia from cut throat competitors to moderate competition to some extent cautious competitors. This rivalry is economically based on old and new post-colonial competition over hegemony in Africa and in the Horn of Africa. The Iranian support of Shiite government and revolutionary principles could not be at the same time in tangent with the Saudi Arabian Sunni Monarchy which resulted on proxy battle and conflict in different parts of the Middle East. This paper will therefore aim at critically analyzing the following factors that have led to shift in relations between the two countries; issue of effect of international sanctions on Iran, the mutiny by leadership in the two countries and the other actors, particularly US, Russia and China. In addition to learning about the changes to paradigms of foreign policies and diplomacy due to these external pressures, it also estimates the impacts at the level of platforms for multilateral discussing and channels for secret diplomacy. For this reason, based on the historical, political and economical background, the research, emphasizes how the Iran-Saudi reconciliation may lead to long term changes in the context of the Middle Eastern region. Such kind of the process may lead to the changes of regional affiliations, in stabilization of energy markets and other proxy-war related events etc. Furthermore, it also places an emphasis on the different factors that make it easy for an individual of one culture to associate and interact with an individual of another culture. It then argues how these nations that have for along time been in conflict would come to work for peace and harmony and thereby bringing stability and economic growth of the region after uniting.