من الراديکالية إلى البراغماتية العلاقات الإيرانية السعودية خلال الولايتين الرئاسيتين لهاشمي رفسنجاني 1989-1997

The history of Iran’s revolution was marred by a prolonged war of attrition in the 1980s. But by the early 1990s, different factors had altered the trajectory of Iran’s revolution. Domestically, a war-weary Iran had to contend with the pressures of re-building the country in the midst of a leadership crisis, while internationally, Iran had to reconcile itself with a new international system following the Cold War. The U.S. had become the main beneficiary of the Soviet collapse and the world’s sole superpower. The problem was that the presence of U.S. troops in the Gulf was inversely proportionate to Iran’s influence in the region and Iran’s hegemonic goals. With growing Arab support for U.S. troops in the Gulf to keep Iran and Iraq contained, the chances that a regional security system including Iran could emerge diminished. Under these circumstances, Iran was forced to adjust its foreign policy behavior in response to the preferences of other regional actors. Iran’s new conciliatory position towards the Gulf States encouraged Saudi Arabia to improve its ties with the Islamic Republic. The overlap of President Rafsanjani and Crown Prince Abdallah’s leaderships in Iran and Saudi Arabia, respectively, strengthened Iranian-Saudi ties. Rafsanjani’s pragmatist foreign policy and Abdallah’s insistence that Saudi Arabia should pursue a foreign policy less dependent on U.S. interests paved the way for the Iranian-Saudi rapprochement in 1997.