By The Daily Journalist.
Iran and Saudi Arabia have experienced a number of challenges in Yemen, that might tare their already frail relationship. With the emancipation of Iran regarding nuclear energy, Saudi Arabia who opposed the treaty has recently tried to realign their military superiority over the region.
In recent weeks, several leading members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard have stepped up their threats about the fatal consequences of Saudi Arabia for their participation in the war in Yemen. Recently, Ali Akbar Velayati, adviser and person of the utmost confidence of the supreme leader, confirmed the warning: “Saudi Arabia has fanned the flames of a fire that can not turn off”.
But the recent words of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, rejecting outright the International Atomic Energy Agency to inspect military facilities in Iran, which has confirmed the shift that is giving the regime in its foreign policy toward Riyadh.
This refusal means the announcement of a new red line that complicates the work of Iran’s nuclear negotiations team and responds to the Islamic Republic will not allow any foreign interference that may reveal its military capabilities.
“A tactical move which shows the new defense strategy that Iran is preparing to the possibility that Saudi Arabia extend its policy of annihilation of the Shiite factions in other Arab countries,” explains Hossein Gheleji, professor of Islamic studies at three universities Revolution Tehran.
“The Saudi kingdom, after government reshuffle carried out by King Salman Bin Abdelaziz, especially with the appointment of Prince Mohamed Bin Salman as defense minister, has radicalized its foreign policy toward belligerence that Iran will not allow “.
The stem of King Salman said in early April to a delegation from the US Congress that “you can not trust Iran.” There is no doubt that nuclear negotiations have intensified fears Riyadh to lose influence in the region, but Tehran believes that the new Saudi government is going too far.
“If Saudi Arabia radicalizes its foreign policy in the region attacking a Muslim country, then Iran has to react to what they are doing,” says the professor. For now, this reaction is only tactical, but if Riyadh does not stop its policy of aggression, then “Iran will change its strategy and show how the relationship with the Arab country will change from enmity to confrontation. Today you can not rule out that in the future a war will break out between Iran and Saudi Arabia, “he predicts.
This escalation of tension between the two countries is at the same time, undermining the government of Hasan Rohani, who is under “enormous pressure” due to the radicalization of the discourse of those inside Iran who do not want the nuclear deal to take place furthering these hostilities to whip up the flames.“If Rohani fails and there is no agreement, the revolutionary Sepah -Guard will be reaffirmed in their view that Iran can never trust America.”
That Rohani lost the upcoming elections it would be a great failure for the country,” said an expert in foreign policy of the reformist newspaper Shargh ‘journalist asking anonymity. “Khamenei has settled not to allow nuclear scientists speak with the IAEA or tolerate inspections in the arsenals of missiles. With this barrier, the leader is aligning with the Revolutionary Guards and putting Rohani in an extremely complicated situation,” he says.
This journalist also believes that today it can not be ruled out, war between Iran and Saudi Arabia, “a stage a few months ago seem impossible to predict.” Iran’s support to huthies factions in Yemen, along with the outstanding performance of the Shiite forces in Iraq against the Islamic State, “is causing the reaction of a new Saudi political elite that Iran wants to show who’s boss in the Middle East” Professor Gheleji accurate, for whom this elite strengthen its ties with Israel to jointly combat fronts to the rest of the region in which Iran is involved: Lebanon, Syria and, to a lesser extent Gaza.
