PEACE-MAKER
The “geopolitical archenemies” Iran and Saudi Arabia have agreed to reestablish diplomatic ties, after many years of belligerent relations. The hostility between the two countries, which has largely contributed to instability in the Middle East, has been a major concern in the region and the international community.
The two countries pledged to reopen their embassies, resume flights between them, and forge trade and economic cooperation.
They broke formal ties in 2016 after Saudi Arabia executed a Shiite Muslim leader and Iranian protesters stormed Saudi Arabia diplomatic missions.
Both strategically located in the region and with vast oil reserves, the relationship between Iran and Saudi Arabia has been a complex and tense one for some 40 years. Both sides have muscular allies in the East-West divide.
They support rival sides in various conflict areas across the Middle East, including Yemen, Lebanon, and Syria. Thus, improved relations between Tehran and Riyadh would have positive geopolitical effects in the war-torn region.
We know that the Iran-Saudi engagement would not immediately put an end to the decades-long mistrust and hostility between the two countries, but it would at the very least be a major first step that would lead to peace, security, and stability in the Middle East and the Islamic world.
Notably, Bahrain and Qatar have also restored diplomatic relations, after cutting ties some six years ago. In 2017, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and Egypt imposed an embargo against Qatar, which they accused of supporting Islamic movements that they consider a security threat. The three Arab countries, except Bahrain, lifted their boycott of Qatar in 2021.
Much earlier, we spoke of a distant hope that someday, somehow in God’s own chosen time, the most difficult but not impossible Shiite-Sunni dialogue may yet come to pass in our time.
As we much earlier advocated in our letters to Saudi Arabia’s then King Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz and Iran’s spiritual leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, it would be of great relief to our region and indeed the world, if the two leaders of Islam, Saudi Arabia, representing the Sunnis, and Iran, representing the Shiites, respectively, could perhaps meet in Mecca and Medina and bring about the beginnings of reconciliation and the end of violence in the lands of Islam, and head off decisively the expansion and internationalization of the extremist groups, ISIS-ISIL. We believe the initiative is most difficult but not impossible.
We remember when our esteemed friend, the late President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani of Iran visited Saudi Arabia in 2010 and enjoyed positive relations with then Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah.
The late President Rafsanjani had expressed hopes that Iran and Saudi Arabia would have a close political and religious relationship. He said that “if the two countries are harmonized on regional issues and the Islamic world, seditionists will not be able to induce differences between Muslims.”
The late King Abdullah was an early leader against religious extremism. No statesman realized terrorism’s global threat more acutely than he did since his kingdom lies in the vortex of an imagined “clash of civilizations.”
The late King Abdullah initiated a series of “interfaith dialogues,” first, in the holy city of Mecca, then in the key western cities of Madrid, Geneva, and the Vatican, among others.
We had the privilege to speak in both the Madrid and Geneva dialogues, on the invitation of Saudi Arabia’s Rabitah, the Muslim World League.