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To understand the current cyber conflict, it is important to understand the political history of the region. This includes both the history of Saudi Arabia and Iran. The geographical, political, and religions histories of both nations impact the current situation in the region. The modern aspect of cyber conflict does not occur in a vacuum and must instead be viewed in historical and political context.
The Gulf Cooperation Council is a group of Arab monarchies consisting of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, formed in 1981 (Al-Mawali, 2015). The group was formed for economic reasons. Saudi Arabia has always taken a leading role in the Gulf Cooperation Council. One if the goals was to have a common currency by 2010, but it did not reach that goal. Other goals include establishing scientific research centers, encouraging the private sector, and generally increasing ties among member nations (Abboud, 2016). Achieving a common defense force was also a goal of the council, but one that has not been achieved (Yasein, 2019). While the council has not achieved all of its goals, it has facilitated cooperative projects throughout the member nations. These projects have included economic initiatives, technological projects, and improvements to healthcare. With these advances, one could argue that the political motivations behind forming the council are less important than the progress it has achieved.
To some extent, the council was also established as a counterbalance to Iran’s political influence in the region. Iran has continued extending its influence by supporting groups such as Hezbollah, and expanding its involvement in Syria (Wastnidge, 2017). Ibish (2016) views the conflict in Syria as a proxy war between Iran and Saudi Arabia. Whether that view of the Syrian war is accurate or not, there is no doubt that Iran has at least sold arms to factions in Syria. It is clear that Iran wishes to have a strong influence on Syria, to the point of introducing military forces in Syria (Bucala, 2017). The leadership of Iran would probably view their involvement in Syria as supporting a kindred cause. This is in fact how the United States viewed its involvement in South Vietnam. However, from the perspective of the council, Iran’s involvement in Syria serves primarily to enhance Iran’s influence throughout the region.
The issue is one of competing ideologies and goals. Clearly both Iran and Saudi Arabia are both Muslim nations. However, Iran is largely Shia Muslim, while Saudi Arabia is a primarily Sunni Muslim country. Throughout the middle of the 20th century, Saudi Arabia viewed itself as the leader of the Muslim world. This view is supported by Saudi Arabia being home to Mecca and the birthplace of Islam. However, the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran set up a truly theocratic Islamic government (Parvaz, 2014). Furthermore, Iran has the explicit goal of exporting its theocratic model to other nations. This serves as a direct threat to the power of the Monarchy in Saudi Arabia, and the other Gulf Cooperation Council states. While there are issues regarding economics and oil that fuel the conflict, it is not unreasonable to assume that one of the primary driving forces in the rivalry between the Gulf Council and Iran is the theocratic threat to the power of the monarchies in the council. While the council has accomplished other, quite laudable goals (Khoja, Rawaf, Qidwai, Rawaf, Nanji, & Hamad, 2017; Al-Othman, et al., 2015; Salahuddin, & Gow, 2014), protecting the power of the monarchy is the primary purpose.