Alwaght | News & Analysis Website

Alwaght - In time of both King Abdullah and King Salman, to oppose Iran as a regional power and effective in many regional issues, has been the main approach in foreign policy of Saudi Arabia. However, in the new era, getting close to the Muslim Brotherhood and trying to cooperate with this regional movement to oppose Iran and its allies in the region has been the axis of King Salman’s politics. Naturally, in time of King Abdullah, elites who played an important role in dealing with the power of the Muslim Brotherhood, could not be easily changed in this new era, and pursue the foreign policy of Saudi Arabia. From this perspective, foreign policy has been effective on the internal developments of Saudi Arabia.

These changes are motivated primarily by getting close to the Muslim Brotherhood in the region, while King Abdullah’s policy was based on opposing the Organization. The Muslim Brotherhood, was among the boycotted organizations which was under pressure in King Abdullah era. King Abdullah not only did not helped the Muslim Brotherhood government of Egypt or other Brotherhood governments in the region to stabilize their domestic situation but also helped to overthrow such governments, especially in Egypt, and broadly welcomed alternative coup government in Egypt to help, in one hand, suppress the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, and in the other hand, help it to continue its governance despite all the pressures from people and faltering economy in Egypt. In Syria and Yemen such a move has also been significant.

In Syria, in which Saudi Arabia, from the early days of crisis in the country, was standing by the liberation army and the Islamist-controlled groups such as Jaish al-Islam, and made attempts to weaken the Muslim Brotherhood against Syrian opposition groups, as a result of the above changes, gradually got close to the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood opposition and its main supporters, Qatar and Turkey, and eventually they managed to re-shape Jaish al-Fatah and achieve unity among the opposition groups and provided the opposition with aids in a centralized manner.  The outcome was evident in recent success of Jaish al-Fatah in Jisr al-Shughur, Idlib, etc.

In Yemen, the changes are different from that of Syria; however, from the Riyadh’s perspective to the Muslim Brotherhood, one can find similarities between developments in Yemen and Syria. In this sense, Saudi Arabia which had special relations with the (Brotherhood- Salafi) Reform Party, as a result of the confrontation policy against the regional movement of Muslim Brotherhood, gradually distanced from the Reform Party and cut off the aids. Consequently, the Reform Party distanced from Riyadh, and adopted more independent policies in his relations with Yemen. As King Salman ascended the throne, the trend has changed. Saudi Arabia, like other countries gradually began to approach the Reform Movement, and in its war against Yemen, expanded its cooperation with the movement against Ansarullah. In fact, one of the main reasons for Riyadh getting close to the Muslim Brotherhood, lies in the country's effort to contain Ansarullah power in Yemen. Thus, major changes in Saudi Arabia’s policies in the West Asia have just started and will continue.

In general, intense internal competition among Al Saud House is the main reason beyond the rapid changes. However, regional and international environment are seen as secondary effective components. Saudi Arabia failed to address most regional issues, and found itself in a region in which Iran not only is more powerful, but also the United States is currently reluctant to get involved in regional crisis management and strongly oppose Iran’s regional policies. In this context, Saudi Arabia seeks to enter a new round of regional confrontation with Iran, eliminate domestic competition, and maintain the dominance of the King’s like-minded party to address the regional issues. In this sense, changes taken place in Saudi Arabia, is just a reproduction and rejuvenation of authoritarianism based on justifications attributed to foreign policy.

Although the changes were significant in terms of impact on domestic politics of Saudi Arabia, from the perspective of ranking the Saudi regime between two spectra of democracy and authoritarian system, there has been no substantive changes. In addition, although the foreign policy of Saudi Arabia, according to the above-mentioned changes, inclines towards alliance with the Muslim Brotherhood in the region; however, there has been no change in its priorities to deal with Iran's regional power and influence. In fact, local and regional activities during the new kingdom, along with other facts reveals an inability to understand the depth of changes in the US regional policy or, worse, it may imply that Saudi Arabia makes attempts to oppose the changes happening in the international policy of  the West Asia.

Unlike Saudi Arabia, the Islamic Republic of Iran, founded and elected on a new understanding of developments in the region, pursues its own regional policy; however, its most important regional rival, Saudi Arabia, persists in its old mechanisms. This, based on traditional instruments and regional dynamism will increase chaos, anarchy and instability. Young elites coming to power who insist on military solutions and imposing them onto other countries show that the future Saudi Arabia, would seek to change the status quo. Changes introduced in critical conditions, will lead to nothing but crisis.