Are Saudi Arabia and Iran Beginning to Back Away From Confrontation?

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s visit last week to Kuwait and Oman was the latest sign of an improvement in the tone of Tehran’s relations with the Persian Gulf states, and in particular Saudi Arabia, this year. Perhaps the uncertainties around U.S. President Donald Trump’s intentions, as well as the recent thaw between Turkey and Russia, are factors. In any event, it underscores the strategic trend of greater regional ownership of local problems.

Rouhani’s stopovers in Kuwait and Oman followed a number of developments in the Persian Gulf region since January that suggest that regional powers are seeking to step back from the brink of all-out conflict. A visit by the Kuwaiti foreign minister to Tehran in late January, with an unspoken mandate from the Gulf Cooperation Council states, was a signal of their desire to lower the temperature in regional relations, with Iraq and Oman offering to lend a hand in this potential rapprochement. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has continued to advocate for a peaceful dialogue among the neighbors, most recently this weekend in Munich. ...