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Saudi Arabia-Iran tensions rise following 'act of war'
Following Lebanese PM resignation, claims of an assassination plot and a missile fired from Yemen, rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran is 'threatening to boil over'
The site of an airstrike in Sana, Yemen, on Sunday. The Saudi-led coalition struck Houthi positions after a ballistic missile was intercepted near Riyadh (Photo: Mohammed Huwais/Getty)
Lebanon Prime Minister Saad Hariri announced his resignation on Saturday afternoon, from an undisclosed location in the Saudi capital of Riyadh.
Amid claims that he had been the target of an assassination plot, Saad Hariri made his reasons for resignation clear as he said
“Wherever Iran settles, it sows discord, devastation and destruction, proven by its interference in the internal affairs of Arab countries”.
“Iran is trying to destroy the Arab world, and Hezbollah’s weapons are aimed at Syrians and Lebanese”, he added.
Saad Hariri, Former Prime Minister of Lebanon
Though the war against ISIS may be coming to an end, the rivalry between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Islamic Republic of Iran is threatening to boil over in Lebanon, where both Tehran and Riyadh accuse one another of interfering in the affairs of Beirut.
On Monday, reports from Saudi Arabia said that a missile was fired at its capital from Yemen, an “act of war” by Iran.
“We see this as an act of war”, said Saudi foreign minister Adel Jubair, in an interview.
“Iran cannot lob missiles at Saudi cities and towns and expect us not to take steps”.
According to Jubair, the missile was smuggled into Yemen in parts, assembled in Yemen by operatives from Hezbollah and the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps of Iran and fired from Yemen by Hezbollah.
citing allegations of Hezbollah’s role, minister of state for Persian Gulf affairs, Thamer al-Sabhan said that Saudi Arabia considered the missile attack an act of war by Lebanon also.
“We will treat the government of Lebanon as a government declaring a war because of Hezbollah militias,” Mr. Sabhan told the Saudi-controlled Al Arabiya network. “Lebanon is kidnapped by the militias of Hezbollah and behind it is Iran.”
Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, accused Saudi Arabia of “wars of aggression, regional bullying, destabilizing behavior & risky provocations,” in a statement on Twitter.
KSA is engaged in wars of aggression, regional bullying, destabilizing behavior & risky provocations. It blames Iran for the consequences.4/
— Javad Zarif (@JZarif) November 6, 2017
#KSA bombs #Yemen to smithereens, killing 1000’s of innocents including babies, spreads cholera and famine, but of course blames Iran. 3/
— Javad Zarif (@JZarif) November 6, 2017
Iran denied the accusation, which came a day after a wave of arrests in Saudi Arabia, which appeared to complete the consolidation of power by crown prince Mohammed bin Salman.
The prince’s grip on power tightened further on Monday when American officials, tracking the situation, said that as many as 500 people, including at least 11 princes, were rounded up in the name of a crackdown on corruption.
The two moves effectively signaled aggressiveness by the prince as well as a new and potentially more dangerous stage in the Saudi cold war with Iran for dominance in the region.
“Today confrontation is the name of the game,” said Joseph A. Kechichian, a scholar at the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, who is close to the royal family. “This young man, Prince Mohammed bin Salman, is not willing to roll over and play dead. If you challenge him, he is saying, he is going to respond.”
On Tuesday, while traveling in Asia, US president Donald Trump praised the attests, saying the king and crown prince “know exactly what they are doing”.
I have great confidence in King Salman and the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, they know exactly what they are doing....
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 6, 2017
....Some of those they are harshly treating have been “milking” their country for years!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 6, 2017
Robert Jordan, a former American ambassador to Saudi Arabia who now practices law in the region, said Prince Mohammed’s aggression was “compounded somewhat by what people would call a green light from President Trump.”
Mr. Trump has encouraged Saudi Arabia and its allies “to be more forceful against Iran, and to take more charge of their own neighborhood, and they have taken that to heart,” Mr. Jordan said. “They know America will have their back.”
