With the “moderation” discourse strengthened during the presidency of recently elected Hassan Rouhani, pragmatism will be enhanced in Iran’s regional policy. This development will weaken the existing “mutual threat” perception between Iran and Saudi Arabia that is rooted primarily in the policies of both countries in response to regional issues. Such a development will also consequently strengthen relations between the two.
Some analysts believe that because of the sectarian Sunni-Shiite divide and the geostrategic goal of Tehran and Riyadh of containing the other’s regional role, strengthening relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia will not be an easy task. The reality, however, is that their bilateral relations are not marred by major sectarian or geostrategic differences, per se, but rather differences in these areas created by their reactions to regional events. That is, when the region is in crisis — such as the situation in Iraq following 2003, Syria’s current struggles and developments in Egypt following the Arab Spring — tensions between them have risen. Conversely, during times of relative regional peace, their relations have strengthened, for example, during the late 1990s.