That includes the kingdom 's interests in Syria , where Saudi - backed rebel groups are currently battling Iran - backed Shiite militias and Hezbollah forces loyal to the regime of Syrian President Bashar al - Assad . Saudi Arabia is locked in two other proxy wars with Iran in Yemen and Bahrain . Saudi Arabia 's relations with Iran hit a new low in January after the Saudis executed a prominent Shiite cleric , Sheikh Nimr al - Nimr , leading Iranian protesters to ransack artifactexistence.damagedestroy.destroy and set fire to the Saudi embassy in Tehran . The kingdom cut off all diplomatic ties with Iran shortly thereafter . Washington 's response to the spat between Saudi Arabia — a longtime US ally — and Iran , with which the Obama administration recently secured a historic nuclear deal , was not as supportive of the Saudis as the kingdom would have hoped .

And if the incumbent foreign government complains about the “ benevolent US assistance”then it can be toppled because it is “ siding with the terrorists ” . This is , of course , the whole rationale behind the so - called War on Terror that Washington crafted in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks . Just uttering the phrase War on Terror gives Washington license to invade and ransack artifactexistence.damagedestroy.na any foreign state it chooses , as in Afghanistan and Iraq , where more than one million people were killed by US forces “ hunting down terrorists ” . Before that , the official pretexts were “ War on Communism”or “ War on Drugs ” . But with the collapse of the “ Evil Soviet Empire ” , the first of these pretexts became redundant .

And if the incumbent foreign government complains about the “ benevolent US assistance”then it can be toppled because it is “ siding with the terrorists ” . This is , of course , the whole rationale behind the so - called War on Terror that Washington crafted in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks . Just uttering the phrase War on Terror gives Washington license to invade and ransack artifactexistence.damagedestroy.destroy any foreign state it chooses , as in Afghanistan and Iraq , where more than one million people were killed by US forces “ hunting down terrorists ” . Before that , the official pretexts were “ War on Communism”or “ War on Drugs ” . But with the collapse of the “ Evil Soviet Empire ” , the first of these pretexts became redundant .