Dr. Chelsi Mueller

University of Florida

Bio

Chelsi Mueller is an Assistant Professor of Middle East Studies at the Hamilton School, University of Florida. She has a Ph.D. in History from Tel Aviv University and is a research fellow in the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies, Tel Aviv University. She authored the book The Origins of the Arab-Iranian Conflict: Nationalism and Sovereignty in the Gulf (Cambridge University Press, 2020) and is a co‑editor of the journal Israel Affairs.

Saudi–Iranian Relations: Patterns of Confrontation and Accommodation since 1979

Abstract

This paper conceptualizes Saudi–Iranian relations since 1979 as a protracted conflict shaped by Iran’s use of coercive confrontation and Saudi Arabia’s reccuring shift from limited confrontation to defensive accommodation. It identifies three distinct periods characterized by alternating cycles of confrontation and conciliation before considering how direct Iranian strikes on the Kingdom and Iran’s halt of commercial transit through the Hormuz during the 2026 US–Israel war on Iran—and the Saudi response—fit this established pattern.