(Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies-Bar-Ilan University) Hillel Frisch - Saudi Arabia is fighting an all-out war for survival, as was recently demonstrated when Houthi forces in Yemen launched a ballistic missile at Riyadh's largest airport. As Iran, its formidable nemesis, became ascendant, the Saudis no longer consider the U.S. to be reliable to stave off external threats. Regionally, the Saudis have had to face the realization that it is the only Sunni Arab state with the potential power to meet the Iranian challenge. This position stems from the sharp decline of Egyptian power. To the east, the Saudis could once rely on Iraq to be a buffer against Iranian imperial ambitions. Not only has that buffer ceased to exist, but Iraq has come under Shiite rule. Financing proxies has been the central mainstay of the Saudi security architecture for decades. The comeback of the Assad regime at the expense of the Sunni rebels financed by Riyadh represents a major strategic loss for the kingdom in terms of its balance of power with Tehran. The writer, a professor of political and Middle East studies at Bar-Ilan University, is a senior research associate at its BESA Center.
2017-11-20 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive