Iran, Saudi Arabia and the 'Trump variable'
Relations between Saudi and Iranian leaders seem to sway precariously from week to week, propelled by a host of outside influences.
p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Calibri; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Calibri; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000; min-height: 19.0px} p.p3 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Helvetica; color: #0d0d0d; -webkit-text-stroke: #0d0d0d} p.p4 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Helvetica; color: #0d0d0d; -webkit-text-stroke: #0d0d0d; min-height: 16.0px} p.p5 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Helvetica; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000} p.p6 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Helvetica; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000; min-height: 16.0px} span.s1 {font-kerning: none} span.s2 {font: 13.0px Helvetica; text-decoration: underline ; font-kerning: none; color: #2865a8; -webkit-text-stroke: 0px #2865a8} span.s3 {font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke: 0px #000000} span.s4 {font: 13.0px Helvetica; text-decoration: underline ; font-kerning: none; color: #0f80ff; -webkit-text-stroke: 0px #0f80ff} span.s5 {font-kerning: none; color: #0f80ff; -webkit-text-stroke: 0px #0f80ff} span.s6 {text-decoration: underline ; font-kerning: none; color: #042eee; -webkit-text-stroke: 0px #042eee} span.s7 {font-kerning: none; color: #e6210d; -webkit-text-stroke: 0px #e6210d} span.s8 {font-kerning: none; color: #fb2506; -webkit-text-stroke: 0px #fb2506} span.s9 {font-kerning: none; color: #0433ff; -webkit-text-stroke: 0px #0433ff} span.s10 {text-decoration: underline ; font-kerning: none; color: #0f80ff; -webkit-text-stroke: 0px #0f80ff} An attack on Saudi Arabia’s Aramco oil facilities Sept. 14 and the subsequent brief slide in Saudi crude output quickly grabbed world headlines and sent Saudi-Iran tensions soaring once again.
Yemeni Houthi fighters claimed responsibility for the strike, which was perhaps the largest-scale operation by the Shiite group during Yemen's 4½-year-old civil war. During that time, the Houthis have targeted Saudi interests with sophisticated missiles.
In the immediate aftermath of the Aramco strike, both Saudi Arabia and the United States blamed Iran, further straining Riyadh-Tehran ties already stretched by a series of fast-paced hostile developments. Yet calls for de-escalation from Saudi Arabia are now growing here and there.
For its part, Tehran says it has been persistent in pursuing reconciliation. Even before the landmark 2015 nuclear deal, Iran on different occasions had stressed the importance of de-escalation with regional countries in general, and Saudi Arabia in particular.
