US reportedly fears Iran-Saudi Arabia rift will set back ISIS fight

The Obama administration and its Western allies have been left scrambling to smooth over a rift between Saudi Arabia and Iran that erupted over the weekend after the Saudis executed a prominent Shiite cleric.

On Sunday, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir announced that his country had severed diplomatic ties with Iran and gave Iranian diplomatic personnel 48 hours to leave his country. All Saudi diplomatic personnel in Iran have been called home after mobs attacked the kingdom’s embassy in Tehran, as well as a consulate.

According to The Washington Post, the Obama administration fears that the escalating dispute could negatively affect the ongoing fight against the ISIS terror group, as well as the effort to bring Syria’s ongoing civil war to a peaceful conclusion.

At least one U.S. official blamed the Saudi government for stoking tensions by executing Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, a central figure in Arab Spring-inspired protests by Saudi Arabia’s Shiite minority until his arrest in 2012.

“This is a dangerous game [the Saudis] are playing,” the official told the Post. “There are larger repercussions than just the reaction to these executions.”

That drew an angry response from a Saudi official, who told the Post, “Tehran has thumbed its nose at the West again and again, continuing to sponsor terrorism and launch ballistic missiles and no one is doing anything about it.”

“Every time the Iranians do something, the United States backs off,” the official added, according to the Post. “The Saudis are actually doing something.”

The executions illustrate Saudi Arabia’s new aggressiveness under King Salman. During his reign, Saudi Arabia has led a coalition fighting Iran-backed Shiite rebels in Yemen and staunchly opposed the nuclear deal world powers struck with Iran this past summer.

It also represents just the latest turmoil in the two countries’ long-rocky relationship, which saw diplomatic ties between them severed from 1988 to 1991.

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