Saudi Arabia’s Policy against Iran: Reasons and Motivations

Saudi Arabia has intensified its competition with Iran to an all-out confrontation since the downfall of Saddam Hussain in Iraq in 2003. This confrontation has become more severe during the revolutionary developments in the Middle East starting from 2011;particularly after the signing of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action by Iran and the 5+1 countries. In view of the above mentioned, the main questions here are as follows: What are the reasons and motivations for Riyadh to adopt a confrontational approach vis-à-vis Iran? What are the measures Saudi Arabia has taken to confront Iran? And what are the policies that Saudis have adopted to keep balance against Iran? This paper has used the “motivational realism” theory and the concept of the “greedy actor” to hypothesize that Saudi Arabia has tilted toward an aggressive policy against Iran in order to find an exit from its traditional status quo foreign policy in different regional areas, as well asto fill the power vacuum in the Arab World after the revolutionary developments that hit some Arab countries. Aligning with the United States in the Middle East is last but not least of these motivations. Driven by such motivations, the kingdom has taken a number of measures and has adopted policies against Iran, including coalition and consensus building, softening relations with Israel, using energy and economic leverages, making use of the capacities of regional and international organizations, intensifying arms races, using the capacities of the holy sites of Mecca and Medina and finally fomenting sectarian tensions.