Will Iran and Saudi Arabia go Into War? A political science professor answers

During these two months, Iran and Saudi Arabia have had serious tensions. These tensions between the two countries have waxed and waned.

Now, Lebanon and Yemen is in the cross-hairs of the escalating tension between these two countries, that are on opposite ends of conflicts across the Middle East.

Saudis accused of Iran for supporting Houthi rebels in Yemen which launched a missile at the international airport in Riyadh some days ago.

On the other hand, Lebanon's Prime Minister Saad Hariri abruptly resigned, issuing a statement in Riyadh blaming Iran for meddling in Lebanon's affairs via its proxy, Hezbollah.

Iran denied supplying Houthi fighters with missiles, and accused Saudi Arabia of trying to escalate tensions.

After Hariri's resignation, Saudi Arabia warned the Lebanese government of the dangers of Hezbollah, accusing the group of being involved in every terrorist attack that threatens the kingdom. It has denied forcing Hariri to resign.

These tensions have been increasing after Muhammad Bin Salman came to power. His basic foreign policy is bolding Shiite_Sunni difference and war.

I had an interview with a professor of political science in the university of Lancaster. Dr Simon Mabon has had some works on Iran and Saudi tensions. His new article titled: "Muting the trumpets of sabotage: Saudi Arabia".

We talked about Iran and Saudi political tensions. My basic question was about the possibility of war between Saudi and Iran? I asked Dr Simon: Will Iran and Saudi Arabia go Into War? Does Saudi Arabia attack Iran? How much is it possible?

For the second question, what do you think about Hezbollah and Saudi? Will they go Into War? I asked.

Dr Mabon insisted that war is not an option and answered: I think that whilst tensions have increased in recent weeks, there is no real desire for war in either state.

Rhetoric is used not only for foreign policy but for domestic audiences as a means of strengthening support bases. So we must look beyond that to really understand what is happening. Of course, the danger is that things are taken at face value, which has the capacity to escalate and get out of control.

Then he explained the possibility of war against Hezbollah and added: I don't think that a direct war between Saudi Arabia and Hezbollah is a likely outcome, in spite of the escalation of tensions between the two.

Saudi Arabia has long been concerned at the Party of God's influence in Lebanon, yet this is not an end in itself; rather, Saudi Arabia is more concerned with Iranian influence, via Hizballah. If there is conflict, I doubt that it would be directly between the two states.