In his first visit to the United States since assuming the throne, Saudi King Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud met with US President Barack Obama to discuss various regional issues, foremost among them Iran’s destabilizing regional activities and the aftermath of the recent nuclear deal. The Saudi monarch was assured that the agreement prevents Iran from gaining a nuclear weapon through a robust inspections regime, and that there is a provision for a snapback of sanctions should the agreement be violated. But more broadly, the outcome of the meeting highlights and emphasizes Saudi Arabia’s continued efforts to counter and negate Iran’s influence in certain Arab countries.

Given the opposition of the Obama administration to engage militarily in the various wars of the Middle East, the Saudis have set out on an unprecedented expansion of their armed forces under the rubric of a Saudi defense doctrine. With over $100 billion already spent on conventional military expansion in the past five years and another extra $50 billion allocated over the next two years, the Saudis are fully committed to and capable of out-powering the Iranians. They are pursuing this path through an Arab alliance they lead that can defend Arab homelands from rebel Shiite militias supported and armed by Iran, conduct extensive counterterrorism operations against the Islamic State and al-Qaeda and deter the spread of weapons of mass destruction.

In fact, the Saudis have already proved successful in forming military coalitions that can push back the Iranians and their cronies. The first concrete victory occurred in Bahrain in 2011 when the Saudis led a Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) coalition into the island nation to help it defend itself from an Iran-backed insurgency. The second victory took place last month when the Saudi-led Arab coalition liberated South Yemen by dislodging the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels and army brigades loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh and forcing them to retreat to the capital, Sanaa. The Saudis and their GCC allies, especially the United Arab Emirates, are currently engaged in finishing the job by pushing north with the objective of ridding the entire country of any groups that are affiliated with Iran.

Once Yemen is secure, the Saudis will begin to plan utilizing their increasing strategic alliances and formidable military infrastructure to address the Syrian civil war. Having long expressed their frustration with the world’s indifference to the grave humanitarian crisis that has caused nearly 300,000 deaths and created over 4 million refugees, the Saudis and their allies look primed and ready to take matters into their own hands. Saudi military planners have already started looking at potential scenarios where Riyadh could use air power to provide cover for anti-Assad forces not linked to terrorist groups. Sooner or later, a Saudi coalition will get involved in Syria, and it will become the largest and most dangerous front in the conflict between the kingdom, its Arab allies and Iran.