Iran and Saudi Arabia should seize historic chance for lasting peace and unity: Article

The Middle East Monitor described the 2023 Tehran-Riyadh rapprochement as a turning point that shattered long-standing assumptions that Shias and Sunnis would remain locked in perpetual rivalry.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian (L) meets with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Tehran, IRNA – Iran and Saudi Arabia must bury decades of animosity and seize their China-brokered reconciliation as a once-in-a-generation chance to end sectarian conflict, rebuild regional trust, and shape a new cooperative order across West Asia and the Muslim world, a recent Middle East Monitor article has argued.

The piece, published on Saturday, described the 2023 Tehran-Riyadh rapprochement as a turning point that shattered long-standing assumptions that Shias and Sunnis would remain locked in perpetual rivalry.

“The reconciliation between the two has created a wave of hope across the region and among peace-lovers worldwide,” the article said.

It added that both nations now have a rare opportunity to rebuild confidence and jointly address peace, stability, and post-oil economic transformation.

The article stressed that Iran and Saudi Arabia, as two regional powers, face shared challenges too costly to ignore.

Cooperation, it said, could bring prosperity, stability, and well-being to their peoples and beyond, while rivalry has only deepened mistrust and tarnished Islam’s global image.

With shifting global energy markets and intensifying competition from the US and Russia, the commentary argued that neither Iran nor Saudi Arabia can afford continued confrontation.

Instead, it urged them to form joint mechanisms for economic, defense, and intelligence cooperation, regulate cyber and data security, and manage conflicts through dialogue.

Drawing parallels to Europe’s post-Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648) peace, the article called for a regional treaty to institutionalize reconciliation and coexistence.

“Saudi Arabia, Iran, and other regional states should sit together and form an umbrella body to handle political, sectarian, ideological differences and reduce tensions, and end divisions once and for all.”

“The entire world, not just the region or the two billion Muslims, needs a break from these endless, exhausting conflicts,” it concluded.