On July 9, Saudi Prince Turki al-Faisal, Saudi Arabia’s former intelligence chief, spoke at a gathering of the People's Mojahedin of Iran, also known as the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK), in a Paris suburb. His proximity to one of Iran’s most controversial opposition groups – which the European Union and the United States designated a terrorist organization until 2009 and 2012 respectively, and which still bears that reputation in Iran – bodes ill for any prospects of a thaw in the regional cold war between Iran and Saudi Arabia.
At the gathering, al-Faisal told MEK leader Maryam Rajavi: “your struggle and fight with the cancerous tumor of Khomeini will be remembered forever as a great epic in Iranian history and for the future generations.” He also promised her group financial assistance.
The People’s Mojahedin Organization was founded in 1965, and was one of many leftist organizations involved in the Iranian Revolution of 1979. Before the revolution, its members assassinated several government officials and US military advisors. Immediately after the revolution, they supported the execution of officials from the Shah’s government and the occupation of the American embassy in Tehran. But in 1981, following a series of political disputes and armed clashes with supporters of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the MEK announced that its goal was to overthrow the Islamic Republic.
The MEK’s first leader, Masoud Rajavi, fled to Paris and then traveled to Baghdad as the Iran-Iraq War escalated. In Iraq, he cooperated with Saddam Hussein’s regime, turning his organization into a paramilitary and security entity at war with Iran. Iran claims that during the past 35 years, the MEK has assassinated more than 12,000 people in Iran. In the last 10 years, Iranian security forces have highlighted their efforts to destroy MEK bases inside Iran and have even organized military attacks against them.
In view of this history, the Islamic Republic regards any flirtations by its enemies with the MEK as a serious provocation. Memories of Saudi backing for Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq War make the prospect of MEK-Saudi cooperation doubly alarming for Iranian officials.
“The Father of the Taliban and Al Qaeda”
Iran reacted to the news quickly and bluntly. Calling Saudi Arabia the “father of the Taliban and Al Qaeda and a partner of the Zionists,” the foreign ministry described the speech as “a new example of political insolence and stupidity.” Judiciary Chief Sadegh Larijani said that “certain reactionary countries...are trying to destabilize our country and so they arm terrorists and send them here.”
Iranian officials have already sounded the alarm about Saudi intentions earlier this year. “Saudi Arabia wants to send terrorist groups to neighboring countries to create insecurity along the Iranian border,” said Ahmad Reza Pour Dastan, commander of Iranian ground forces, in April.
On June 21, Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alavi reported the arrest of several “Wahhabi-Takfiri terrorists.” His use of the term “Wahhabi-Takfiri” is significant because it shows that Iranian security officials link terrorism not just to Saudi Arabia, but to its ultra-conservative official religious ideology, Wahhabi Islam. (A "Takfiri" is a Sunni Muslim who presumes to excommunicate other Muslims). Iranian state TV also aired a documentary about the arrest of two of the suspected terrorists, highlighting their alleged plans in Arabic.
Iran is often very quick to allege Saudi involvement in any unrest. In recent months, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corp has engaged in deadly clashes with elements of the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK), an armed Kurdish opposition movement operating in Kurdish areas near the Iran-Iraq border. Some Iranian media outlets have blamed Saudi Arabia for fomenting tensions in the region. Shortly after al-Faisal spoke publicly with the MEK, the Iranian news site Nasim Online wrote that PJAK “has received orders from its Saudi master to turn Kurdistan into a second Yemen.” Since last year, Saudi Arabia has been at war with anti-government Houthi rebels in Yemen, a group it accuses Iran of supporting militarily.
Iran is vulnerable to terrorism on its eastern frontier as well. On July 6, four Iranian soldiers were killed on the border between Iran and Pakistan, a region where a policeman had been killed a shortly before. In April, eight border guards and two members of the Revolutionary Guards were killed in the eastern border areas. Iran has identified the assailants as members of Jaish ul-Adl, or Army of Justice, an insurgent Sunni group based in Sistan-Baluchistan province. For years, Iranian media have accused Saudi Arabia of supporting the group.
Iran has also accused Saudi Arabia of supporting Arab separatists in the oil-rich Iranian province of Khuzestan in Iran’s south.
A Rare Consensus for Iranians
In the past year, as Saudi Arabia has reacted skeptically to the nuclear deal between Iran and the world powers, a near-consensus has formed in Iran about Saudi efforts aimed at destabilizing Iran. Even reformists are sounding off on the Saudi-Iranian quarrel. “Western extremists, Israel and a number of rich and reactionary Arab regimes have entered in an open alliance that aims to destabilize Iran,” wrote the reformist paper Etemad in an editorial on July 11.
Iranian officials believe that this standoff involves proxy wars in Iraq, Syria, and Yemen, Saudi financial pressure on Iran — especially through the manipulation of oil prices — Saudi pressure on smaller countries to downgrade or cut relations with Tehran, and cyber warfare.
Now, the main flashpoint between the two countries is terrorism. Iran believes that Saudi Arabia wants to use terrorism as a tool against Iranian interests, a charge that Saudi Arabia also makes against Iran with regard to Yemen, Bahrain, and the Saudi Shia minority.
This nadir in the relations between the two countries is unprecedented. Continuing crises throughout the Persian Gulf region make a return to normalcy increasingly unlikely.
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