Proxy WarFare in the Middle East

In 2020, it has been clear to many people that the Saudis and Iranians have not been getting along.

Now Saudi Arabia and Iran have actually never declared war on each other. Instead, they fight indirectly by supporting opposing sides in other countries and inciting conflicts. This is known as Proxy Warfare.

Cold War

This is not the first time this happened. This is a pure example of the U.S and Soviet Union

The most famous Cold War was fought between the Soviet Union and the United States. They never declared war on each other, but clashed in proxy wars around the world. Each side supported dictators, rebel groups, and civil wars. Like the U.S and Soviet Union, Saudi Arabia and Iran are two powerful rivals, but instead of fighting for world dominance, they're are fighting over control of the Middle East.

Recession to Oil

After World War I, The Ottoman Empire collapsed leaving many tribes to fight for power in Arabia. One tribe from the interior, the Al-Saud eventually conquered most of the peninsula and established the "Kingdom of Saudi Arabia". In 1938, massive oil reserves were discovered in Saudi Arabia, and in a instant the Saudi monarchy was rich. And the oil money built roads and cities all around the desert country. Which helped forge an alliance with U.S, on the other side Iran was facing a hard time. Iran also had massive oil reserves an even a bigger Muslim population, but constant foreign intervention was creating chaos. Since the 18th century, Iran had been invaded by the Russians and British twice. In 1953, the U.S secretly staged a coup, removing the popular prime minister, Mohammed Mosaddegh.

Monarch and Revolution

Here is where it gets intense

In his place, they propped up a monarch, Reza Shah also known as "Shah of Iran" who aggressively was reforming Iran by turning it into a secular, westernized country, but he harbored corruption and terrorized the population with his secret police, the Savak. It's really in 1979, when Ayatollah Khomeini and the Islamic Revolution overthrow the Shah, that the real tension between Saudi Arabia and Iran begins. In 1980, a CIA report showed how Iran started helping groups, mostly Shia trying to overthrow governments in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Saudi Arabia. The U.S prompted the Saudis to redouble their efforts, to fight against Iran. Saudi Arabia bolstered their alliance with the U.S by forming the GCC "Gulf Cooperation Council", an alliance with other gulf monarchies.

Gulf War and Yemen

A few decades later this happens...

Now I'm skipping the Gulf War, but pretty much what happens is in September 1980, Iraq, under the rule of dictator Saddam Hussein, invaded Iran. The rise of Iran as a regional power threatened Iraq, He was hoping to stop the Iranian revolution gain power, and annex some of Iran's oil reserves. Then later on the U.S gets involved and overthrows Hussein and all civil wars break out, but for the Saudis it doesn't matter. Now back to when I said "A few decades later this happens" where in 2015 Yemen becomes possibly the biggest famine so far in the 21st century. The conflict in Yemen is extremely complex, but here are the cliff notes. Yemen was spiraling into an all out civil war, the Houthi rebels who've fought the government for years, almost seized power in 2015. But then Saudi Arabia couldn't keep themselves from intervening, and decided to prop up the Yemeni government. A lot of people say that the Saudis are supporting the government because the rebels might be getting back up from Iran. So, Saudi Arabia started bombing the hell out of the rebel territory, and now many experts think that Saudi Arabia is using Yemen as a proxy war against Iran to control the region. So take 3 wars, and shove them into the Arab's poorest country, and that's the conflict in Yemen.

And its all because of Muhammad Bin Salman.