Last week, the Saudi prince, Mohammed bin Salman, visited Turkey to meet with Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan as part of a tour of Middle Eastern nations. The meeting comes nearly four years after the death of Jamal Khashoggi, a critic of the Saudi royal leadership, who was murdered inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on orders from the Saudi government. The Saudi visit to Turkey presents an opportunity for the two countries to form a peace agreement that would better serve stability in the region.
Currently, there is a coalition in the Middle East consisting of Israel and Sunni Arab nations in opposition to an antagonistic Iran. The Iranian regime is deeply hostile to Israel, which views Tehran as the primary threat in the region. Israel is particularly concerned about Tehran’s sponsorship of terrorist organizations such as Hezbollah that create ongoing security concerns. For Saudi Arabia and neighboring countries, the conflict with Iran is rooted in religious differences — Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States follow Sunni Islam, while Iran subscribes to Shia Islam — as well as in political ideologies, as Iran holds a more revolutionary worldview of the Middle East, while Saudi Arabia seeks to preserve the status quo in the region.
Historically, Turkey and Iran have been rivals, but there has been increasing cooperation between them because of Turkish energy needs and Iran’s vast oil reserves. Now, however, the meeting between the Saudi prince and the Turkish president could potentially spur Turkey’s interest in joining the new Middle East coalition. Although the immediate inclusion of Turkey in the anti-Iran coalition seems unlikely, burgeoning Saudi–Turkish relations may signal a new direction for Turkey.