West Asia At War: Repression, Resistance and Great Power Games

by Talmiz Ahmad

Vasiliev says that the Saudi approach to Iran ‘was an intricate combination of rivalry, fear and cooperation’.41 Through the 1960s, the two monarchies were united by their shared alliance with the West in the Cold War and, closer home, their hostility to Nasser’s Egypt. They were brought together in the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), where they cooperated to ensure a moderate approach to production and prices (see below). What worried Saudi Arabia was Iran’s military capabilities and the shah’s territorial claims in the Gulf. He claimed Bahrain as Iranian territory, a claim he finally relinquished only in August 1971 when the country became independent. In early 1971, the shah announced that Iran would assume responsibility for the defence of the Gulf after British withdrawal, which added to the uneasiness of the emerging Arab states. Later, he forcibly took control of the islands of Abu Musa and the Greater and Lesser Tunbs at the mouth of the Gulf, which were claimed by the emirates of Sharjah and Ra’as al Khaimah, respectively, on the eve of the UAE emerging as a sovereign, federal entity in December 1971. However, Saudi Arabia quietly countenanced Iran supporting Sultan Qabous in his fight against the separatist movement, People’s Liberation Front of Oman, a Marxist entity, in the southern province of Dhofar.