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US-led international sanctions, the Indo-Saudi economic ties continued
to flourish and at times the Kingdom stepped into bridge the shortfall due
to drop in oil imports from Iran.
While the US has been a factor in Indo-Iranian relations, New Delhi
would have to accommodate the Saudi concerns vis-à-vis the Islamic
republic. The Saudi-Iranian rivalry has intensified in the wake of the Arab
Spring and the perceived Iranian involvement in a host of trouble spots.
Moreover, the 2015 nuclear deal has convinced the Kingdom that the
diplomacy merely delayed the weaponization process of Iran and spurred
it to embark upon its own nuclear programme (Hannah 2016 ).
Besides the differences over the Iranian nuclear ambitions, there are
other factors which accentuated the Saudi-Iranian rivalry. Tehran has been
able to gradually increase its regional profile and influence through its
proxy Hezbollah in Lebanon or by supporting militant organization such
as Hamas in Palestine. After the US-led invasion that removed Saddam
Hussein from power, Iran has emerged as the dominant player in the
domestic politics of Iraq and the emergence of ISIS only enhanced Iran’s
grip over its neighbour. Tehran not only extended political support to the
beleaguered government in Baghdad but provided military training and
arms to Shia militants, most importantly the Popular Mobilization Force
(PMF), to fight against the ISIS and supplement the efforts of the Iraqi
security forces (Patty 2017 ; Malik 2017 ; Beehner and Bruno 2008 ).
Similarly, the civil war in Syria had led to Iran gaining significant politi-
cal and security foothold in that country (Bassiri and Pantucci 2016 ). It
has been accused of intervening in Bahrain through the Shia opposition
groups to destabilize the al-Khalifa rule. The Iranian political and logisti-
cal support has emboldened the Houthi movement into precipitating the
Yemen civil war. Thus, during the past decade events in Iraq, Lebanon,
Syria, Palestine, Bahrain and Yemen had led to significant mistrust, tension
and problems between the two Persian Gulf nations. Saudi Arabia and its
allies have been accusing Iran of trying to Persianize the Gulf and create a
sectarian discord towards enhancing its regional influence and hegemony.
From the Iranian viewpoint, Saudi Arabia has not only been financing
various Sunni-jihadist elements but has also been the force behind the mod-
ern Jihadist ideology that has led to the scourge of terrorism and emergence
of al-Qaida and ISIS (Zarif 2016 ). As discusses elsewhere, Saudi Arabia
alone does not have the monopoly over the rise of fundamentalism within
Islam. Besides Wahhabism, there were other similar movements which
emerged in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries reflecting a puritanical
P. R. KUMARASWAMY AND MD. M. QUAMAR