CONTEMPORARY EURASIA VOLUME VIII (1) ContemporaryEurasia81 | Page 44

SAUDI ARABIA ON THE ROAD TO MODERNIZATION: REALITY OR MYTH?
Arabia, but rather it changed the nature of geopolitical processes in the
Middle East.
A huge rivalry began between Iran and Saudi Arabia, and Iran and
Arab states with a Sunni orientation. Saudi Arabia began to more
intensively “export” the Wahhabi trend of Sunni Islam to the outside world,
with the objective of defending its own positions in the outside world. The
rivalry between Iran and Saudi Arabia also exposed some tension in inter
confessional relations, which have (since 2003) become acute in Iraq, and
then, during the “Arab Spring”, they continued in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and
elsewhere. MBS’s regional foreign policy initiatives have not worked out as
he had hoped. The Trump administration’s unwavering support for the
Crown Prince despite all this has helped him successfully consolidate power
in his own hands in a way that is unprecedented in recent Saudi history.
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