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May 29th, 2016 
Awake Goy Tehran, May 29, The Iran Project – Saudi proxy war with Iran has entered new phases while Saudis are after intensifying the tension.
Iraqi forces’ victory over ISIS in Fallujah has made Saudi supporters of Daesh so angry that Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir has clearly expressed his dissatisfaction with the presence of IRGC Major General Qassem Soleimani in Iraq.
Iraqi forces have surrounded Fallujah and completed the first phase of their assault to retake the city from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) armed group, said Iraqi defense ministry on Saturday.
Iranian cultural presence in the Islamic world has also annoyed Saudis to the extent that one of their newspapers, “Makkah” said that Shahab Hosseini, the 42-year-old Iranian actor who won Silver Bear for Best Actor at Cannes, is more dangerous than General Qassem Soleimani.
Last week, Iranian director Asghar Farhadi’s latest flick, ‘The Salesman’ won the Best Screenplay and Best Actor award for Shahab Hosseini in the 69th edition of Cannes Film Festvial.
Hajj, the pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia that is a religious duty for all Muslims, is another source of Saudi-Iran conflict. While three months remaining until the 2016 Hajj, great deals of disagreements between Saudi officials and extremist muftis are escalating. The disagreement, which is more between extremist Muftis and Wahhabi leaders with Saudi royal family, is over the presence of Iranian pilgrims on this year’s ritual.
Iran previously announced that it will suspend its participation in this year’s annual Hajj rituals in the latest sign of deteriorating relations between the two countries.
In his latest remarks, the head of Iran’s Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization said on Saturday that Saudi Arabia has refused to accept Tehran’s conditions in a deal that guarantees preserving the dignity of Iranian pilgrims during this year’s Hajj pilgrimage.
Tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia intensified after Saudi Arabia’s management of the pilgrimage in the wake of a deadly stampede in September and the kingdom’s execution of prominent Shia cleric Nimr al-Nimr in January.
Saudi Arabia cut diplomatic ties and halted flights to and from Iran on January 3 following attacks on vacant Saudi diplomatic premises in Tehran and the city of Mashhad by angry people protesting Nimr’s execution.
Expressing concern over the presence of Shias, especially Iranians, in the 2016 Hajj, extremist Wahhabi leaders and muftis are pressuring the Saudi king and authorities to exclude them from this year’s ritual. They are trying to create an atmosphere of religious violence to deprive Iranian pilgrims of their right to do their yearly ritual and visiting holy cities of Mecca and Medina.
In his recent harsh remarks, Saudi Arabia’s grand mufti, Sheikh Abulaziz Al Sheikh strongly condemned Iranians, claiming they are abandoning Islam. Thus he and other extremist muftis are putting the pressure on Saudi authorities and provoke Saudi Arabia’s Muslim community to support their ideas and turn them against the regime.
So, on the one hand, Saudi authorities and Wahhabi muftis are trying to show their will as demand of public opinion and even other countries of the region. And on the other hand, by sending Sunni Iranians to Hajj through third countries, like the UAE and Qatar, they are seeking to fuel the tension.
Destabilizing global oil market and making effort to prevent Iran’s economic growth are among Saudis measures to take all Iran’s oil customers.
Saudi Arabia has been widely blamed for destabilizing global oil market by pumping more crude and driving the prices to record lows.
It is clear that if Saudis pursue their hostile actions against Iran, they will be faced with the tough reaction of the strongest country in the region.
Source Article from http://theiranproject.com/blog/2016/05/29/how-far-saudi-arabia-goes-in-confrontation-with-iran/
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