The propaganda war between Iran and Saudi Arabia, bitter rivals on opposite sides of West Asia’s biggest current crises, is hotting up, with near daily exchanges and insults between ministers and state media outlets.
In the last week alone senior figures from both countries have cast diplomatic niceties to the desert winds and attacked each other publicly.
Adel al-Jubeir, the Saudi Foreign Minister, said on Monday that Iran was “occupying Arab lands” in Syria — where it supports Bashar al-Assad.
Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister, retorted that the Saudis were in no position to complain as they were “occupying” Yemen — where Tehran backs the Houthi rebels.
Iran ramped up its anti-Saudi rhetoric after the recent Haj tragedy in Mecca but it went onto the offensive at the start of the Saudi-led campaign in Yemen in March, with a Revolutionary Guard commander predicting the “collapse of the House of Saud... in the footsteps of Zionist Israel.”
Saudi-affiliated media began highlighting the situation in Ahwaz (Khuzestan or Arabistan), in south-western Iran, where Arabic-speaking citizens complain of discrimination, a subject which is clearly calculated to raise hackles in Tehran.
In April, the Saudi state-run satellite channel al-Ekhbariya aired a documentary describing Ahwaz as “under occupation by Persian forces.”
Khalaf Ahmad al-Habtoor, a prominent Emirati businessman, called for “the liberation of Arab Ahwaz” from Iran. Saudi and Iranian social media users routinely vilify each other under provocative hashtags.
The war of words is linked to last July’s nuclear pact, which is seen by the Iranians as their ticket out of international isolation and by the Saudis as a reckless, short-sighted concession by a weak U.S. President.
Riyadh and its Gulf allies dare not, like the Israelis, directly oppose the deal, but rather emphasise non-nuclear issues such as Iran’s behind-the-scenes role in Yemen and Bahrain, as well as their more overt involvement in Syria and Iraq.
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