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Why region should prepare for long Saudi-Iranian confrontation

Despite the efforts of smaller players such as Kuwait and Oman to defuse tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran, there is little on the horizon suggesting an end to Riyadh’s determination to directly confront Tehran.
Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir (R) and Secretary-General of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani attend a news conference after an extraordinary meeting of the foreign ministers of GCC, in Riyadh January 9, 2016. REUTERS/Faisal Al Nasser - RTX21N8K

Ties between Iran and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) have been strained for years. Incidents such as the stampede during the Hajj pilgrimage in 2015, in which hundreds of Iranian pilgrims were crushed to death; the execution of prominent Saudi Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr in January 2016; and the subsequent attacks on Saudi diplomatic compounds in Iran ultimately led to a cut in diplomatic relations between Tehran and Riyadh. This cooling soon engulfed other GCC member states, except Oman, which has traditionally enjoyed good ties with Iran.

In Iran’s view, the Arab states have little desire to create tensions but are rather under Saudi pressure to follow Riyadh’s policies. In this vein, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi last year, in response to an Arab League statement against Iran, said, “The few countries that more or less support Saudi Arabia's mischievous policies should know that this complicity will have no result but responsibility for crimes such as child killing and support for terrorism.”

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