KİTAP İNCELEMESİ: The Struggle for Supremacy in the Middle East: Saudi Arabia and Iran; Iran and Saudi Arabia: Taming a Chaotic Conflict; Iranian-Saudi Rivalry Since 1979: In the Words of Kings and Clerics

Abstract

This review endeavors to identify key themes and critical perspectives discernible in the scholarship of Simon Mabon’s The Struggle for Supremacy in the Middle East: Saudi Arabia and Iran, Ibrahim Fraihat’s Iran and Saudi Arabia: Taming a Chaotic Conflict, and Talal Mohammad’s Iranian-Saudi Rivalry since 1979: In the Words of Kings and Clerics, who have meticulously investigated Iranian-Saudi relations in the Middle Eastern context. Since the Islamic Revolution of 1979, bilateral relations between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia have assumed paramount importance in elucidating the multifaceted political, religious, cultural, economic, and societal dynamics of the Middle East. The postrevolutionary trajectory brought a volte-face to relations, instigating a protracted period of rivalry and conflict spanning four decades, thereby catalyzing the escalation of conflicts across the Middle East. Both countries perceive each other as existential security threats, while concurrently aspiring for regional hegemony. Amidst this backdrop, seminal events such as Saudi Arabia’s support of Iraq during the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988), the recalibration of the political landscape after the United States (US)-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, the reverberations of the Arab Spring, the execution of Nimr al-Nimr1 in 2016, and the Yemen Civil War have markedly intensified the discord in bilateral relations between Riyadh and Tehran. Although there have been short periods of restrained rapprochement and diplomatic overtures, the prevailing atmosphere of acrimony and relentless pursuit of dominance, both regionally and within the greater Islamic sphere, determine the framework of their relations. Consequently, pejorative labels such as “suspicion”, “infidel”, “enemy”, and “confrontation” often feature in describing the complicated dynamics characterizing Saudi-Iranian relations.

Keywords

Saudi Arabia, Iran

Citation

Ahmet Furkan Özyakar, "Simon Mabon, The Struggle for Supremacy in the Middle East: Saudi Arabia and Iran (Cambridge, New York, Cambridge University Press, 2023); Ibrahim Fraihat, Iran and Saudi Arabia: Taming a Chaotic Conflict (Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, 2020); Talal Mohammad, Iranian-Saudi Rivalry Since 1979: In the Words of Kings and Clerics (London, I.B. Tauris, 2023)" Uluslararası İlişkiler, Advanced Online Publication, 20 January 2025, pp. 1-9.

Affiliations

Ahmet Furkan ÖZYAKAR Lecturer, Dr., Department of International Relations, Atatürk University, Erzurum E-Mail: [email protected] Orcid: 0000-0001-7842-2084