19 Jan 2016

Saudi Arabia-Iran Feud 'carries implications for all of us'

From Nine To Noon, 9:19 am on 19 January 2016
Iranian protesters set fire to the Saudi Embassy in Tehran.

Iranian protesters set fire to the Saudi Embassy in Tehran. Photo: AFP

James B. Smith, a former U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia (from 2009 to 2013) examines the diplomatic fallout of supercharged tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran, and how they impact on the geo-political situation in the Middle East.

It follows the Saudi execution of a Shia Muslim cleric, the subsequent setting ablaze of the Saudi embassy in Tehran, Riyadh's expulsion of Iranian diplomats and Tehran accusing Saudi warplanes of bombing its embassy in Yemen, where Saudis and Iranians are involved on opposite sides of the country's civil war.

Smith is also a  former U.S. Air Force brigadier general and F-15 fighter pilot who served in Operation Desert Storm.

He is currently the president of C&M International, an economic and political consulting firm.

The former Ambassador says he doesn't expect the crisis to escalate into conflict, but it does impact negatively on future prospects for Syria and Yemen, and that has implications for all of us.