Religious ideology and its impact on the tense relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia; Case study of Syria and Yemen

The outbreak of the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1978 changed the political and security equations of the Middle East in general. One of the most important changes was the confrontation between Iran and Saudi Arabia as two powerful and influential countries in the region, which had previously had relatively friendly relations and coordination at the regional level. In this study, an attempt is made to investigate the impact of religious ideology (ideological rivalry) on the tense relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia; In the following, the relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia in the form of Shiite ideology versus Salafi-Wahhabi ideology after the Islamic Revolution and then in the rivalry between the two countries in Syria and Yemen are examined. According to the findings of this article, religious ideology was one of the most important factors of tension between the two countries, which has been significantly evident in the developments of the last decade in Yemen and Syria.