Al Shindagah

4 | Al Shindagah | Issue 137 ©Shutterstock Beware Iran’s dangerous Middle East creep do not wish to sound alarmist but after piecing the puzzle together I cannot escape the conclusion that Tehran’s mid-to- long term strategy is not only aimed at dominating the region but also targets Mecca and Medina. The Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has been working towards that goal for many years. Last September, he heaped insults on the Saudi ruling family while slamming the Saudi ruling family’s caretaker role over Islam’s holiest sites. In May this year, Iran’s Minister of Defence Hossein Dehghan was quoted saying, “If the Saudis do anything ignorant, we will leave no area untouched except for Mecca and Medina.” The then Deputy Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Prince Mohammed bin Salman hit back. “We know that we are a main goal for the Iranian regime,” he said. “We will not wait until the battle becomes in Saudi Arabia but we will work to have the battle in Iran rather in Saudi Arabia.” The Kingdom and its Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) allies are well aware of the ayatollahs’ end game. Iran’s arming and financing Yemen’s Shiite Houthi rebels was to further a military corridor into Saudi’s southern border for Iranian revolutionary guards and pro-Iranian militias. That march had to be stopped, which is one of the reasons the Saudi-led coalition was obliged to take action. That said, I want to warn GCC leaderships of the growing and I POLITICS Khalaf Ahmad Al Habtoor • Published in the media on 26 August 2017