After the Arab Spring, Saudi Arabia became the leader of the Arab countries, and it attacked Iran on all sides

The Arab Spring was a wave of color revolutions in the Arab world. The 2010 self-immolations in Tunisia were the trigger for the entire Arab Spring movement, with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi saying that "revolutions" in the Arab world have killed more than 1 million people and caused nearly $1 trillion in infrastructure damage, saying that "events in Syria, Iraq, Libya and Yemen have caused huge losses." Some international estimates put the cost of infrastructure at $900 billion, and these events have killed more than 1.4 million people and made more than 15 million refugees. In Tunisia, previously considered a successful example of the Arab Spring, youth unemployment is about 35 percent. Although Tunisia overthrew the dictatorship and established a democratically elected government, economically, GDP growth has stagnated since 2010, with per capita GDP even falling from $4,000 to $3,600 a year.

Traditionally, Saudi Arabia has been conservative and cautious in its diplomacy, not provoking, not taking risks, and not openly meddling in regional affairs. However, after the "Arab Spring", Egypt, Syria, Iraq and other former Arab "standard-bearers" were either greatly damaged or fell into civil strife, and Saudi Arabia was pushed to the center of the regional political stage and became the "boss" of Arab countries. Since Salman became king, Saudi Arabia has openly and actively intervened in the Middle East and sought to play a leading role.

In the later years of the reign of former King Abdullah, in order to prevent the royal power from being hit by the "revolutionary" wave, Saudi Arabia sent troops to Bahrain in March 2011 to assist the royal family in dealing with Shiite unrest, and promoted the Arab League to give the green light to the military intervention of the United States and Europe in the Libyan war, and strongly supported the Egyptian military in suppressing the "Muslim Brotherhood" in 2013. After King Salman came to power in January 2015, Saudi Arabia significantly adjusted its regional policy and attacked from all sides, making containing Iran a top diplomatic priority. On the one hand, actively form Sunni coalitions. Saudi Arabia has supported proxies in Syria, Iraq, and Lebanon to counter Iran's expanding influence, and in March 2015 "led" 10-nation troops to intervene in Yemen's civil war, and then formed a 34-nation Sunni "anti-terrorist coalition" against Iran. On the other hand, in order to win more "anti-Iran" allies, Saudi Arabia invited the heads of state of Qatar and Turkey, who had a gap with Saudi Arabia because of their support for the Muslim Brotherhood forces, to visit in February and March 2015 to actively repair relations and strengthen cooperation on supporting the Syrian opposition. On 17 July, Salman also personally received senior Hamas officials. Nevertheless, with the conclusion of the JCPOA on July 14, 2015, Iran's situation has improved, its regional influence has continued to rise, and the so-called "Shiite arc" of Iran, Syria, Yemen, Iraq, Lebanon and other countries has become more solid. Russia's strong intervention in the Syrian war in September 2015 further affected the chaos in the Middle East, and the Syrian Bashar regime improved significantly.

Entering 2016, Saudi Arabia has gone further and further on the road of regional diplomacy "confronting Iran". First, diplomatic "combined fists" continue. In early January, Saudi Arabia executed Nimir, a prominent Shiite cleric, spurred a large-scale anti-Saudi march in Iran and severed diplomatic relations with Iran on the grounds that the embassy in Iran had been attacked. Saudi Arabia used this as an excuse to pressure Sunni countries in the region to "take a stand" and "take sides", Bahrain, Sudan, Djibouti and other countries followed in Saudi Arabia's footsteps to break off diplomatic relations with Iran, and the United Arab Emirates and Qatar also lowered diplomatic relations with Iran. In early April, King Salman and Deputy Crown Prince Salman Jr. visited Egypt, Turkey and Jordan at the same time. In Egypt, Salman generously pledged to strengthen economic assistance, signing contracts worth more than US$24 billion, including: setting up an investment fund totaling US$16 billion to help Egypt improve infrastructure construction such as energy, electricity, and education; building a bridge across the Red Sea "connecting Asia and Africa"; Saudi Arabia provided US$1.5 billion in concessional loans to develop the Sinai Peninsula, among others. Egypt reciprocated by giving Salman the highest level of courtesy, and the Egyptian government announced the "transfer" of the islands of Tiran and Senafir, whose sovereignty is ambiguous. In Turkey, Salman held summit talks with Erdogan and attended the 13th "Organization of Islamic Cooperation Summit" hosted by Turkey, and the final communiqué of the summit clearly condemned Iran's "interference in the internal affairs of Bahrain, Yemen, Syria, Somalia and other countries" and "support for terrorism." In Jordan, Salman Jr. issued a joint communiqué with the Shah of Jordan, accusing Iran of "destabilizing the region."

Second, Saudi Arabia has also "sharpened its knives" against Iran militarily. At the end of February, Saudi Arabia gathered 150,000 troops from 20 countries to hold "the largest and most important military exercise in the history of the Middle East." In addition to the six Gulf countries, eight Arab League member countries, including Egypt, Jordan, Tunisia, Morocco, Sudan, Mauritania, Djibouti and Comoros, and six Islamic countries including Senegal, Maldives, Pakistan and Chad, participated in the military exercise, using many sophisticated American-style weapons. In March, Saudi Arabia pushed the GCC and the Arab League to designate the Iranian-backed Lebanese Allah Party as a "terrorist organization" and cut off $4 billion in military aid to the Lebanese government. At the same time, Saudi Arabia continued to be deeply involved in the war in Yemen in 2016, leading the multinational coalition to continue to carry out fierce air strikes on Houthi strongholds, while supporting Hadi's government forces in the ground offensive. On October 9, Saudi airstrikes on targets in Yemen killed 140 civilians and injured hundreds more, the worst civilian casualties since Saudi Arabia's intervention in the war in Yemen in March 2015. Under the strong condemnation of the international community, Saudi Arabia was forced to admit that it was a "mistakenful bombing".

Despite the rush to the left and right, the Saudi region has been in a relatively passive position. On the one hand, Saudi Arabia is clearly unable to compete geographically with Iran. In Syria, the Bashar regime, with the assistance of Russia, Iran, and the Lebanese Allah Party, fully recaptured Aleppo in December 2016, and the Saudi-backed Syrian opposition lost its most important stronghold in Syria. In Yemen, the Iranian-backed Houthis have formed a north-south confrontation with Hadi, and Saudi Arabia has been forced to continue the protracted war in attrition, and it is difficult to ride the tiger; In Lebanon, pro-Iranian political veteran Michel Aoun was elected president, and Allah party forces increased their control of Lebanese politics; In Iraq, Iranian-backed Shiites are in power to the central government, and a large number of Shiite militias are the main force in the ground combat against the Islamic State. On the other hand, the "Sunni camp" formed by Saudi Arabia looks like a god. The participating countries are either skeptical of the sand, or they are unwilling to actively contribute. Egypt is obviously reserved, has many domestic problems, has no interests with Iran, has no intention of getting involved in the conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran, and has a very different position from Saudi Arabia on Syria, Yemen and other issues, and is lukewarm to the 34-nation anti-terrorist alliance led by Saudi Arabia. In April 2016, the Sisi government originally planned to "return the island" as a big gift, but unexpectedly caused an uproar in China. In January 2017, an Egyptian court ruled that the government's agreement to return the island was invalid. Meanwhile, in September 2016, Saudi Arabia unilaterally halted an oil delivery agreement reached during King Salman's visit to Egypt. Turkey "stepped on two boats", swimming between Saudi Arabia and Iran, currying favor on both sides, left and right. Turkey is even more reluctant to tear its face with Iran, and constantly seeks Turkish-Iranian economic and trade energy cooperation, during the Islamic Summit, Turkey and Iran signed a number of cooperation agreements including tariff reduction, energy investment and so on. In addition, small countries such as Jordan, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates have no intention of fighting for Saudi Arabia on the Iranian issue.