ABSTRACT
Iran and Saudi Arabia are natural choices for case analysis because they represent two types of key Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) member. In addition to its oil income, the former has significant non-oil resources; but at the same time it has major internal demands for resources, and thus has relatively little financial surplus to be devoted to foreign aid. As with other OPEC countries, security considerations were paramount in determining Iran’s aid policies. In fact, Iran’s leaders were quite candid in admitting that the ultimate purpose of its aid programme was to complement its overall security policy. For many years, Iran’s political objectives have been essentially determined by its security needs. Thus, the reduction of Soviet and Iraqi threats and the fight against regional subversion were also important Iranian political objectives. Furthermore, Iran was concerned about some aspects of systemic change.
