The Geopolitics Game Of Iran And Saudi Arabia After The Iraq War

After the Iraq War, the geopolitical structure in Middle East has changed tremendously. Iran, as a leading force of Shiite, and Saudi, as a leading force of Sunni, contend with each other for the hegemony of this region. They both get involved in the competation for the leadership of the region including Iraq, Syria, Bahrain, Lebanon, Yemen and other areas, based on the interests of religion, strategy, economy, and the security. In the process of post-war reconstruction in Iraq, the ways that Iran intervene in are political infiltration, economic intervention and media publicity. At the end of the Iraq War, Saudi stands on the sidelines as an onlooker initially. During the rise of the Islamic State forces, Saudi chose to intervene in Iraq's situation by its military alliance. Overall, in the post-war reconstruction of Iraq war, Iran succeeded in developing Iraq into a part of the Shiite Alliance, whereas Saudi's discourse power in Iraq's affair is at a disadvantage. In the Syria crisis, the ways that Iran intervenes in are military intervention as well as to support and promote political dialogue between the Syria government and its opposition. However, Saudi chooses to lead the league of Arab states resolution and to provide military support for the opposition as the intervention way. The Syrian crisis has so far been more than five years; the situation in Syria is still in an uncertain state. Overall, Iran maintains the leading position in Syrian affairs. In the unrest in Bahrain, the way Iran is involved is to carry out diplomatic controversy with Saudi, however, the way Saudi is involved is direct military intervention. Bahrain unrest is quelled with the help of Saudi military. Thus Bahrain is still the solidest ally of Saudi, whereas Iran has very limited influence in Bahrain. In the Lebanon political deadlock, Iran involves by supporting Hezbollah to impact the Lebanon's political situation, and Saudi mainly involves by supporting the "March 14 coalition forces". At present, the situation in Lebanon is still very confusing, and Iranian-backed Shiite and Saudi-backed Sunni have failed to succeed in parliamentary election. But Iran's discourse power on political issues in Lebanon is stronger than Saudi though. In the mess in Yemen, Iran secretly provides weapons and financial support to the Houthis, where Saudi places pressure on the Yemeni government and launches military operation to the Houthis on behalf of the GCC. So far the war in Yemen has not finished, Saudi's military intervention did not achieve its desired effect. Instead, Iran's relations with the rebels are getting closer. In this game, Iran prevails. In the long term, Iran and Saudi's competition will become a normalcy, and what's more, currently it is already revealed that Iran has tipped the scale in the competition.