ANALYSIS: Ahmadinejad seeks Islamic unity in Saudi Arabia

By Farshid Motahari Mar 2, 2007, 14:07 GMT

Tehran - The state visits to countries like Venezuela, Nicaragua or Bolivia have not done much for Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Critics at home charge that the disputes in which the president is embroiled - over Iran's controversial nuclear programme as well as its influence in Iraqi and Lebanese affairs - should be settled right in the neighbourhood, and not in Latin America.

For this reason, observers consider Ahmadinejad's first official trip to Saudi Arabia, a key regional ally of the United States dominated by the Wahabi sect of Sunni Islam, as geopolitically very important.

Ahmadinejad has many times stressed that 'the enemies of Islam' seek to sow 'disunity among Muslims.'

Disunity among Shiites, Sunnis or Wahabis is indeed not what Ahmadinejad wants: to be isolated as a Shiite swimming against the stream of a Sunni majority within the Arabic world is something he cannot afford.

'More important than religion is race - Arabs and especially the Saudis consider Iran and Iranians not as their equals and therefore brand them as Ajam,' a political analyst in Tehran said.

The term 'Ajam' means non-Arab-speaker but is rather used for 'alien.'

The Saudis are furthermore a close ally of Iran's arch-enemy the US and like many other Arab states would not want to see an Iran- like Islamic model in their own country.

But the current crisis forces both countries - at least in the short-term - to forget about religious and racial differences.

In Iraq a civil war could break out between the Shiite majority and Sunni minority which none of the two sides could eventually win.

'Such a situation would just benefit the Zionists (Israel),' Ahmadinejad says.

The pro-Iran Shiite Hezbollah group in Lebanon is increasing its influence against Sunnis but at the same time, the Palestinians prefer to settle their differences in Mecca despite financial aid funnelled by Tehran to the ruling Hamas group.

Also Iran's atomic programme has caused concern in Saudi Arabia and other Arab Gulf states.

Although the Arabs claim that Iran should have the right to pursue civil nuclear technology in accordance with the Non-Proliferation Treaty, none of the Arab leaders would like to see an atomic bomb in the hands of the 'Ajams.'

However Ahmadinejad's rhetoric that Iranian nuclear technology would benefit the whole region might find some approval in Riyadh, according to observers.

In case of United Nations sanctions against Iran over the nuclear dispute, Tehran has not ruled out a probable oil crisis. But experts predict that that in such a case, the Saudis would be able to control the crisis by increasing their oil production.

Tehran is quite aware of the fact that in an emergency case, the Saudi would intervene in favour of the West. But despite financial benefits and political loyalty, the Saudis would still prefer tp avoid tensions in the Persian Gulf, especially at the Strait of Hormuz which is the Gulf's international route for oil export.

'For Ahmadinejad Iran and Saudi Arabia are two important pillars in the Islamic world, but the visit will show how stable these two pillars are,' an Arab diplomat in Tehran said.

Ahmadinejad will be forced to replace his populism with diplomatic skills during his talks with the Saudis. Besides politics and oil, also the issue of pilgrimage plays a very important role for Iran.

Over 80,000 Iranian pilgrims go to Mecca every year and millions have already registered for the coming years. The pilgrims would in no way accept political differences as an excuse for being deprived from visiting the 'House of God.'