RI, EU agree to cooperate to reduce Iran-Saudi Arabia tensions

“I can’t tell you whether it is six people but we do have a military presence in Saudi Arabia and we are working with the Saudi Arabians to ensure the following of correct procedures to avoid breaches of global humanitarian law”, he said in response to a question from the shadow foreign secretary Hilary Benn. Other Arab allies of Saudi Arabia, such as Jordan and Egypt, have also denounced the attack.

Iran is a Shia Islamic Republic with its strong anti-western revolution and belief it holds regarding Islamic Jurist, and believes it has custodianship over all Muslim, no matter where they reside.

Iran, Saudi Arabia’s archrival for influence in the Arab world, was absent from the states named as participants, as proxy conflicts between the two regional powers rage from Syria to Yemen.

A refusal by some of Saudi Arabia’s most prominent soccer clubs, several of which are headed by members of the kingdom’s ruling family, to play 2016 Asian Championship League matches serves to reinforce Saudi Arabia’s effort to portray Iran as a revolutionary, risky and unstable state.

From this perspective, it is notable that while Russia’s Foreign Ministry has “leaked” Moscow’s willingness to mediate between Iran and Saudi Arabia to the official news agency RIA Novosti, US officials have insisted in their own public comments that Washington will not seek such a role for itself. Vladimir Sazhin, Senior Researcher of the Center for the Study of the Middle East at the Institute of Oriental Studies, calls the situation that has developed between Iran and Saudi Arabia “an expected surprise”.

In a late evening statement on the committee’s meeting, the Foreign Office said: “The facets of cooperation and different activities of the coalition will be decided after consultative meetings, which will be hosted by Saudi Arabia in the near future”.

Low oil prices have raised concerns that Saudi Arabia, which is still 80 per cent dependent on oil for government revenues, will burn through its foreign assets much faster than in 2015. The Saudis see the Obama administration as unwilling to challenge the Iranians and worry about how Iran will exploit the sanctions relief it will soon receive.

The last break in relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran, also initiated by Riyadh, occurred in 1988. A United Nations panel concluded in December that the Emad rocket was capable of carrying a nuclear warhead, a violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1929. Both Israel and Saudi Arabia came out strongly against the White House’s push for the Iran nuclear deal. Nevertheless, Saudi Arabia’s increasing anxiety over an emboldened Iran may continue to fuel greater sectarian tension and conflict in the region. These countries are trying to split the difference between the two belligerent nations in the Middle East. “The Saudis are on the phone lobbying countries very hard to break off ties with Iran but most Gulf states are trying to find some common ground”, a diplomat from an Arab country told Reuters.