Investigating the competition of regional powers in the divergence of the Islamic world with the focus on Iran and Saudi Arabia

Introduction and problem statement

One of the regions that is of great importance in the human and natural fields is the region of the Islamic world in general, and the Middle East in particular. This region has always played a decisive role in the structure of the global geopolitical system. The importance of the Middle East and the Islamic world lies in its human and natural contents. Despite the many structural and functional similarities of the common religion and other structural and functional commonalities, the powers have not been able to play an effective role in establishing a cohesive regional organization for hegemonic stability in the Islamic world. This situation shows that if the powers of the Islamic world (Turkey, Pakistan, Iran and Saudi Arabia) do not take effective steps towards cooperation and convergence, the unrest in this region will pave the way for further influence of the supra-regional powers.

Geopolitics

This concept has a special place in theoretical research in the field of power-politics and land. Geopolitics is the study of the competition of powers for domination over the region, and the world based on the facilities that geography provides them with or the facilities that each power has in competition with another from the geographical environment. Geopolitical dependence is a kind of dependence of the interests and goals of a political actor on the geographical values and advantages of countries and other political actors.

Geo-economics

Geo-economics is the study of the political and spatial aspects of economics and resources. Geo-economics is a branch of geopolitics and political geography that examines politics, resources, and economics. The Geo-economics approach is composed of a combination of three factors: geography, power, and economics, and examines the relationship between the three and their interaction in order to gain the power of governments. Geo-economics is nothing but geopolitical or anti-geopolitical is part of the realm of geopolitical knowledge .
Research

 This research has been done with descriptive-analytical method and the study of authoritative library sources. The results show despite religious commonality and human and natural resources, the Islamic world has a lot of potential to become a regional power in the global geopolitical system, but it is not possible due to some factors and areas of conflict and divergence, including rupture. There are some factors to make it impossible including geographical space, religious and ethnic differences, political thought and system, lack of independence and political and economic affiliations, territorial conflicts, internal competition of the superpowers of the Islamic world, existence of political and security alliances with great powers and supra-regional actors, etc. The huge potential has not been used properly. It is worth mentioning that along with divergence factors, there are factors and areas such as religious and civilizational commonalities, structural and functional homogeneity, common interests and needs, common sense of threat, etc., which can play an effective role in the unity and convergence of the Islamic world.The Islamic world suffers from a lack of territorial integrity, which is limited to eleven geographical regions, and the Middle East region, which is mainly referred to as the center of the Islamic world, is also distinct from several geopolitical regions; This geographical disruption has provided the ground for territorial and border disputes, and this provides a good platform for trans-regional interventions. Given the challenges posed in the four political, economic, cultural and geographical sectors, the construction of a new Islamic civilization will face many difficulties. External factors, especially the West, have also confirmed the excessive disintegration within the Islamic world, doubling the problem of divergence and ultimately the construction of Islamic civilization.

Iran's political system was a constitutional one before the revolution; the Iranian constitution was passed in 1979 and was put to a referendum in the same year, with a positive vote. According to the country's constitution, it has three branches: the legislature, the executive and the judiciary.
Saudi Arabia: Saudi Arabia is an absolute kingdom. New Saudi Arabia. was founded by King Abdul Aziz in 1932. The three legislatures, the executive and the judiciary, are distinct, also all matters depend on the king's decision, and strategic decisions in Saudi Arabia are made by the king. The executive branch is chaired by the king. The parliament also has a more advisory aspect, and its removal and election is by the king. In Saudi Arabia, the judiciary, like the other two branches, is directly under the king's supervision.

Geo-economics competitionIran and Saudi Arabia are the two poles of energy resources and have formed the core of geo-economic competition in the Islamic world. In terms of the composition of oil and natural gas reserves, the situation is almost the same, and Iran has the strategic advantage of being located between the Caspian Sea and the Persian Gulf, and controls the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 40% of the world's oil passes.

Saudi Arabia considers the agreement on permanent nuclear weapons and considers Iran's nuclear goal as a strategic threat. Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council are concerned about the implementation of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty in Iran, which will increase Iran's power in the region. In general, in considering Saudi Arabia's behavior toward Iran over the past few years, it is clear that its approach to Iran has become highly competitive and hostile.

Saudi Arabia's reactionary ideology is less attractive to the nations of the region than Iran's original Islamic ideology, which is based on the ideal of Islamic unity. Lebanon's Hezbollah, as a Shiite group, and Hamas, as a Sunni group, are a crystallization of the appeal of genuine Iranian Islamic ideology. Saudi Arabia is controlled by an authoritarian, Wahhabi-dominated kingdom. In contrast, Iran has a genuine Islamic, revolutionary, and anti-Western ideology.
The results show that the Islamic world is one of the most sensitive and geopolitical regions in the world.

It is worth mentioning that along with divergence factors, there are factors and areas such as religious and civilizational commonalities, structural and functional homogeneity, common interests and needs, common sense of threat, etc. that can play an effective role in the unity and convergence of the Islamic world. Slowly The effects of the two major powers of the Islamic world, Iran and Saudi Arabia, on their convergence and divergence in the Islamic world, given their geopolitical weight, are negligible.In general, convergence in the Islamic world goes beyond convergence between Iran and Saudi Arabia, and the two countries should negotiate the cultural, academic, political and social levels on the agenda as soon as possible, with a proper understanding of the global geopolitical structure and system of domination. They should lead the field to greater convergence and cooperation and align other countries with themselves. In case of resolving disputes between the two countries and laying the groundwork for cooperation and convergence of stable regional forces and hegemony, the two powers will be aligned, and foreign powers will not have a justification for presence and domination in the region. Therefore, in the current approach of regional countries, it has benefited from these disputes, and since it procrastinates in resolving these disputes, it threatens the Islamic world like a deadly poison.