Iranian website: Saudi Arabia has recently lost three battles

A news website close to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards said that Tehran has managed to weaken Saudi Arabia by winning three battles in recent times, the latest being in Yemen where Saudi influence was brought down in favour of Iran, according to Arabi21 website.

The Arabic website quoted Farda News as saying that the current events in the region have contributed considerably to the rise of Iranian influence in the Arab states and in the region more generally, adding that “the Yemeni revolution confirms the rise and expansion of Iranian influence, in contrast with a Saudi retreat across the Middle East region.”

Fars News reportedly went on to claim that Saudi Arabia has recently been defeated three times, with the latest blow being dealt in Yemen. Prior to that, despite four years of trying to bring down the regime of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, the Kingdom has failed to do so and also recently received a strong blow against its influence in Iraq too. As a result, the Iranian website said Saudi Arabia was defeated along three fronts.

These strong blows from the Iranian axis in the region started with the formation of an Iraqi government headed by Haidar Al-Abbadi and followed by the victories achieved by the Syrian army along several fronts during the battles that raged with the Saudi funded armed opposition in Syria and finally in Yemen which saw the victory of Iran’s allies.

The Iranian website considers that the Saudi failures have had a direct impact on its policies and regional role and influence, and that this was reflected within Saudi Arabia in the form of the changes that took place recently in the internal power structure.

It said that Yousef Al-Idrissi, the successor to Bandar bin Sultan, the former Head of Saudi Intelligence, is trying to expand the territory where armed groups are active inside Iraq and to focus on confronting the axis of resistance in Syria so as to weaken Al-Assad. However, it added, the US did not accept the influence of the Islamists in Syria and this is what has led to a major decline in the performance of the Syrian opposition. The Syrian regime exploited the decline of the armed Syrian opposition and managed to mobilise and control large swathes of land that used to be under the control of the opposition.

In its report about the Saudi-Iranian conflict in the region, Farda News reportedly said: “Saudi Arabia has been trying to confront the Shia crescent that extends from Tehran to Baghdad to Damascus and Lebanon by means of supporting the opposition in Syria. But they were taken aback by the advance of the [Shia] Houthis in Yemen where Iran’s Yemeni allies managed to bring down the pro Saudi government. This victory has been the biggest regional blow to Saudi Arabia to the benefit of Iran.”

The Iranian website stressed that all the events taking place in the region point to the weakness of the Saudi regime’s political performance in confronting Iran’s role and influence in the region. Arabi21 quotes it as saying: “The weakness and failure of the Saudi policy in the region was a principal factor in bolstering the Iranian-led resistance axis.”

It also said that one of the main reasons preventing Turkey from taking part in the international coalition against the Islamic State was the retreat of the Saudi role in the region, and thus Ankara wanted to move in an independent fashion far away from US subordination in the region, wanting instead its role in this alliance to be one of leadership unlike the participating Arab states who are taking part in this US-led alliance.