AHC: Reverse Iran and Saudi Arabia's relationship with the US

We're all familiar with the 'U.S overthrows leader/Islamic Revolution in Iran' thing.' The challenge is simple; make Saudi Arabia hostile to the U.S, and make Iran as close to the U.S as Saudi Arabia and possibly Israel

Bonus Points: Give Israel and Iran good relations
Saudi Arabia and Iran developing nuclear weapons
A Middle-Eastern War with Iran and Saudi Arabia being the cause
Iran wins the Iran-Iraq War
 
Iran not succumbing to Islamic revolution. before the revolution, Iran was one of the most important ally of United States in the middle east. But I don't know exactly how to reverse Iran and Saudi relationship. anybody care to help?:eek:
 
Are we allowed to wish away Saudi Arabia's oil depositis? Because that would probably go some way toward lessening American enthusiasm for the place and its governments.
 
hmm... have the USA not carry out that operation in the 50s that overthrew the elected government and installed the Shah. Then have the USSR make some rash statements about bringing the revolution to the Middle East, and scaring Iran into the US camp. Meanwhile, have the USA even more on the Israeli side in the wars there, to the point where the Arabs don't even get their initial victories in '73, but are crushed right at the start. This is likely to foster a lot of anti-US sentiment across most of the Arab world... have it all coalesce in SA, resulting in an eventual overthrow of the monarchy and installation of an Islamic Republic...

okay, all of that is kinda far fetched (to put it mildly), but it's the best idea I've got...
 
US goes with the crazed plans to invade or burn the KSA oilfields in '75. Maybe this is Nixon's Hail Mary to stave off Watergate a bit more. The blowback from that leads to Iran becoming a military dictatorship while remaining the US' primary Middle East patron, while KSA falls to a quick revolution.
 
Have the Shah be less of a dick; without SAVAK he would have been remembered as an enlightened despot who modernized Iran and improved social justice. A stable Imperial Iran with good relations with the US would be perfect. The problem with Mossadegh is that under him Iran probably would have gravitated more towards the Soviets. Saudi Arabia is a bit harder to manage, because there isn't much that they could have done different at would have been worse than OTL Saudi Arabia. I suppose you could have a major fallout between Iran and Saudi Arabia and this combined with a stronger USSR could lead to Saudi Arabia aligning towards the Soviets?
 
One thing to make Saudi less popular with the US is to remove the Saudi part - an Ikhwan victory during the rebellion? The Grand Mosque seizure leading to the house of Saud being overthrown? There are a good few people in Saudi who are rather more stringent in their views than the current rulers - I can't see Saudi Arabia falling out of favour with the US, but I can see a country with the same borders doing that.
 
My thought; Caucasian jiggery (perhaps a little bit of partisan violence in Azerbaijan with dubious connection to Iran) gets the Soviet cage rattling enough to scare Iran into the American Camp. Several British blunders in decolonialism which sour the Anglo-US relations occur in step with increased Soviet love for various Arab regimes. A war for Iskanderum by Soviet-backed Syria nearly leads to World War III, leaving a want for more balance. Syria and Egypt fail to unite and Israel has yet to see another war, still remaining a loveless ally of both camps.

Iraq continues it's series of coups, with Saddam being but a road bump. Sectarian violence in Iraq breeds sectarian violence in the rest of the Arab world as Al-Sadr like figures are used as US-Soviet proxies, the Shia radicals used by the Soviets to undermine American support in Iran and Saudi Arabia. The Saudis, despite their best attempts, inflame tensions between the Shi'ite population of the East Coast, starting a revolt. Though initially fighting the American backed Saudis, once the rebels gain control of the oil fields, the US yields to the Gulf coast rebels in exchange for a continued flow of oil. A peace is brokered with significant autonomy for the Eastern regions.

Perceiving the deal as a loss to the honor of their nation and stirred up by the radicals of the Iraqi carnival of horror, radical Sunni clerics backed by militants overthrow the House Saud and proclaim a new caliphate. The East breaks away, protected by the US and Iran, with the New Arabian Caliphate the rabidly anti-American stewards of the Holy Cities.
 

Delta Force

Banned
Saudi Arabia wasn't very stable in the 1970s. Perhaps Saudi Arabia could succumb to a coup, and the United States could increase its support for Imperial Iran to prevent losing it as well?
 
Negotiations between Anglo-Persian Oil company and Teymourtash go even worse and fall apart in ~1930. Standard Oil are invited in to counterbalance the British, find oil, and licence on more equitable terms than the Brits, leading to the eventual Persian-American oil co becoming a cash cow for Iran, funding lots of development.
Frightened by loss of Persian monopoly, Britain tears up the red line agreement and plays hardball to get and keep rights in Saudi, helped by their many years of bankrolling Ibn Saud.

After WW2, the Saudis want a better deal but the British are bankrupt and can't afford to give up the cash, while american interests are focused in Iran. In 1950 all foreign oil interests are nationalized. An attempted British intervention fails messily with huge political fallout across the Arab middle east as a wave of nationalism sweeps the region.
Without foreign expertise, the inept and corrupt Saudi monarchy faces growing dissatisfaction and increasingly falls back on its other long term supporters in the Wahhabi movement.

By 1980 Iran is a prospering but authoritarian state with strong ties to the US, and Saudi Arabia is a feudal backwater exporting almost as much fundamentalist rhetoric as oil. Saddam Hussein wishes to aggrandize Greater Iraq, but his eastern neighbour is far too strong. However, to the south there are huge expanses of territory, vast underexploited oil reserves, and a lot of criticism directed at Baathism. Surely a few obsolete brigades and a few zealot mullahs will not be much of an obstacle....
 
Yeah, if you can keep the Shah in power, and have the 1969 coup attempt in Saudi Arabia succeed, you can probably get here. A radical Arab nationalist Republic of Arabia would be close with Syria and Iraq, and could become a similarly hostile country to the United States.
 
Iran not succumbing to Islamic revolution. before the revolution, Iran was one of the most important ally of United States in the middle east. But I don't know exactly how to reverse Iran and Saudi relationship. anybody care to help?:eek:

Indeed. And the Saudi royals are not very popular with the workers (mostly foreigners) in the Kingdom.

When General Hackett wanted a scenario to start WWIII, he had Saudi blow up rather than Iran (in the first edition of his "The Third World War"). Presumably it seemed more likely to him. Then of course, the Shah got cancer, and the revolution happened....
 
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