Saudi Arabia vs Iran

Why are Saudi Arabia and Iran rivals?

Before 1979, the two were partners. Both were monarchies, both were American allies, and both feared the Soviet Union. The Nixon administration called them its "twin pillars" of Gulf stability.

Iran's 1979 revolution ended that partnership. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini replaced the Shah's monarchy with an Islamic republic led by Shia clerics. Khomeini called the Saudi monarchy illegitimate and said kings had no place in Islam. Iranian pilgrims chanted revolutionary slogans at the Hajj in Mecca. In 1987 Saudi security forces clashed with Iranian demonstrators there, and 402 people were killed, 275 of them Iranian. Saudi Arabia said the Iranian pilgrims had rioted. Iran said Saudi police had massacred them.

Saudi Arabia spent tens of billions of dollars on Sunni mosques, schools and preachers around the world. Iran funded Shia movements and armed groups. Both governments competed for influence across the Muslim world, above all in countries with mixed Sunni and Shia populations.

Where have Saudi Arabia and Iran fought through proxies?

The Iran-Iraq War set the pattern. When Saddam Hussein invaded Iran in 1980, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait lent Iraq tens of billions of dollars. The war lasted eight years and killed hundreds of thousands of people. In June 1984 Saudi F-15 jets shot down at least one Iranian F-4 over the Gulf.

In Lebanon, Iran's Revolutionary Guards helped found Hezbollah in 1982. Saudi Arabia backed Lebanon's Sunni political leaders. In Iraq, the 2003 American invasion replaced a Sunni-led government with a Shia-majority parliament. Iran backed Shia militias there. Saudi Arabia saw the new order as an extension of Iranian power.

In Syria's civil war, Iran sent fighters to keep Bashar al-Assad in power. Saudi Arabia funded rebel groups. Assad fell in December 2024, which cut Iran's land route to Hezbollah. In Yemen, the Houthis took the capital, Sanaa, in 2014, and a Saudi-led coalition began bombing them in 2015. UN experts and Western governments say Iran supplied the Houthis' missiles and drones. Iran denies arming them.

In Bahrain, Saudi troops crossed the causeway in 2011 at the request of Bahrain's Sunni monarchy, which faced mainly Shia protests. Bahrain's government blamed Iran for the unrest. Iran denied it. Iran also backed Hamas, a Sunni group, for decades. The rivalry is a contest for regional power as well as a sectarian one.

What happened to the Saudi-Iran deal brokered by China?

On March 10, 2023, Saudi Arabia and Iran announced in Beijing that they would restore the diplomatic relations cut in 2016. China brokered the deal. Iran reopened its embassy in Riyadh in June 2023, and Saudi Arabia reopened its embassy in Tehran in August. Saudi Arabia's foreign minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan, visited Tehran in June 2023.

The deal did not settle the conflicts in Yemen, Lebanon or Iraq. Iran kept its ties to Hezbollah and the Houthis. Saudi Arabia kept leading the coalition against the Houthis, although a truce in Yemen had largely held since April 2022.

The 2026 war tested the deal. From February 28, Iranian missiles and drones struck Riyadh, the Ras Tanura refinery, Prince Sultan Air Base, where US forces are based, and Yanbu on the Red Sea. On March 21 Saudi Arabia expelled Iran's military attache and four other staff and gave them 24 hours to leave. It said Iran had violated the Beijing agreement.

In May, Reuters reported that Saudi warplanes had secretly struck targets in Iran in late March. Two Iranian officials confirmed the strikes to Reuters. A Saudi official did not address them. According to Reuters, the two governments then agreed informally to de-escalate in early April. Neither government cut diplomatic relations.

How has the 2026 Iran war changed the rivalry?

On February 28, 2026, American and Israeli strikes killed Iran's Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei. His son Mojtaba Khamenei replaced him on March 8. Iran fired missiles and drones at Israel and at the Gulf states that host US forces, Saudi Arabia among them. Iran also closed the Strait of Hormuz. Most Saudi crude exports normally leave through the strait.

Saudi Arabia told OPEC that its oil output fell to 6.24 million barrels a day in August 2026, the lowest since 1990. It reported 8.37 million in September. Part of its oil now goes around the strait, through the East-West pipeline to Yanbu on the Red Sea. Iran-aligned militias in Iraq also fired drones at Saudi Arabia. In late July Saudi and US jets struck militia bases in Iraq. Saudi Arabia's defense ministry said the kingdom "does not seek escalation but will respond to any aggression against it."

The Houthis in Yemen declared a naval blockade of Saudi Arabia on July 20. In October they fired missiles and drones at Saudi airports. Saudi authorities said a strike on Riyadh's airport on October 10 killed 12 people, and a 13th victim died the next day. A strike on Dammam's airport on October 21 killed two people. Saudi jets are backing a Yemeni government offensive, launched on October 4, to retake Sanaa.

Saudi Arabia signed the Mecca defense pact with Turkey and Pakistan on August 7 and invoked it against the Houthis on October 5. On October 26 Saudi Arabia's defense minister, Prince Khalid bin Salman, went to Tehran with Pakistan's army chief and Turkey's intelligence chief. They met Iran's president, Masoud Pezeshkian. The four countries agreed to keep talking.