Syria and the region. (c2014)

Abstract

Much of the media hype has portrayed the conflict in Syria as solely based on ideological and sectarian motivated calculations, specifically a Sunni-Shia conflict. The involvement of regional actors in Syria, mainly Saudi Arabia and Iran and their ensuing regional rivalry, have invited the sectarian divisions into the civil war as an extension of their interests. The confrontation between Saudi Arabia and Iran has come to manifest itself inside Syria’s civil war as a competition over the direction of the region’s geopolitics and the future of the current regimes. The Arab states system’s internal and external insecurities motivate alliances in the Middle East in accordance with the realist balance of power theory. By investigating the proxy war in Syria and involvement of Riyadh and Tehran in the region’s neighboring states since the invasion of Iraq in 2003, Iran and Saudi Arabia ultimately seek to protect their relative position in the region, secure their respective systems of government, and advance their influence in the Gulf and the broader Middle East.