Iran vs Saudi Arabia as Shias vs Sunnis: Reification, Securitization and Identification

Dieudonné, Jérémy [UCL]

The alleged antagonism between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has manifested itself in various forms during the last few years. However, this rivalry has all too often been introduced as a display of a Shii-Sunni rift that this paper questions. This article builds from an original theoretical framework based on the sociological approach to securitization (Balzacq 2010; 2011; 2016) and the concept of identification (Brubaker and Cooper 2000). This framework is applied to the Saudi-Iranian rivalry on the 2010-2020 period. The analysis relies on primary sources in the case of Iran and secondary sources in the case of Saudi Arabia. The present paper argues that this difference should not be underestimated and treated as a simple methodological choice from the author but as fully part and illustrative of the securitization pattern set out by both countries. Against this background, this article demonstrates that Saudi and Iranian actors both define themselves as “Muslims” but do so differently. Only Saudi actors resort to a sectarian perspective, merging the “Muslim” category with a “Sunni” one, with Iran threatening their religion. Their speeches express a closed and exclusive “identity” defined by their understanding of religion. However, Iranian actors do not refer to intra-Islam differences at all. On the contrary, Iranian actors build up on what they introduce as their oppression and marginalization throughout history. Thereby, they define themselves as liberators, the Islamic Revolution of 1979 being the striking evidence of it, and attempt to rally all the Muslims together. Their speeches thus express an inclusive “identity”. This creates what might be called an “opposition misfit”.