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Saudi Arabia Feels Insecure | Le Monde Diplomatique - 2014 |
Saudi Arabia feels that its position in the Gulf and the world is being threatened by changing regional aims and alliances, in particular in Iran and Egypt. Its rulers, being old, are not coping well with radical change.
"Iran has always interfered in the affairs of Saudi Arabia. In 2003 it was Tehran that gave the green light to Al-Qaida attacks on the Kingdom", said a lecturer at King Saud University in Riyadh, certain of this improbable alliance between a Shia regime and an organisation that regards Shias as heretics. He is not alone: Tarik al-Homeid the influential editor in chief of Asharq Al-Awsat (which is owned by the Saudi royal family), has called on the US to recognise that Iran is the main sponsor of Al-Qaida.
Perhaps this wild speculation comes from a feeling that Saudi Arabia is surrounded by enemies. The lecturer (who asked for anonymity) said: "We are surrounded by instability, and behind it we see the hand of Iran" -- in Iraq, where the government now has almost no contact with Riyadh; in Bahrain, where a popular revolt in 2011 following those in Tunisia and Egypt was seen as an Iranian attempt at destabilisation and was put down by Saudi troops; and in Yemen, where a local Shia insurgency (known as the Houthi rebellion, after its instigator), with mainly domestic causes, has been blamed on manoeuvres by Iran's Revolutionary Guards.
Two axes dominate the Middle East: one led by Iran, with the Syrian government and Hizbullah, the other led by Saudi Arabia, with the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain and former Lebanese prime minister Saad Hariri's 14 March movement. Evidence of these axes can be seen in Syria and Lebanon.
Saudi Arabia's concerns have grown as cracks have emerged in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). In December 2013 Oman opposed Saudi plans for a union of GCC states, and plans for a unified command structure that would cover the armed forces of the six states remain a utopian dream. All the GCC states except Saudi Arabia and Bahrain approved the interim nuclear agreement reached by the US and Iran in November 2013, and received Iran's foreign minister. Kuwait is refusing to sign a GCC internal security pact (proposed by Saudi Arabia), on the grounds that it would go against rights enshrined in the Kuwaiti constitution.
In this uncertain context, Saudi Arabia and two other GCC states -- the UAE and Bahrain -- recalled their ambassadors to Qatar on 5 March. Relations between Qatar and Saudi Arabia have seldom been calm (there were armed border clashes in 1992), though both are Wahhabi states, but the overthrow of the emir of Qatar by his son Hamed bin Khalifa Al-Thani in 1995 heightened tensions. In 2002 Saudi Arabia recalled its ambassador in protest over an Al-Jazeera TV documentary about the founder of Saudi Arabia, Ibn Saud. Diplomatic relations only resumed in 2008, after Qatar promised to tone down Al-Jazeera's criticism.

Internal threats inside the Saudi Kingdom were aways blamed on foreign powers. The Grand Mosque attack in holiest city Makkah in 1979: Turning Point in Saudi Arabia. Further bombing of Khobar Towers in 1996 blamed on Iran, and the Bahrain uprising or unrest in 2011.