Using GCC-Iran relations and current Middle Eastern conflicts as the center of focus in the study, the role of proxy wars, economic sanctions, and diplomacy is evaluated. Using Neoclassical Realism as the foundational theory and qualitative comparative case study as the methodology, three forms of indirect confrontation: Yemen, Syria, and Iraq, are explored. This study aims to understand how system-wide pressures and local political factors together determine the strategic conduct of the regional players and how the system works. This study finds that proxy wars are used in order to manage risks and sustain indirect conflict, which allows Iran and the GCC to achieve their geopolitical ambitions without a full-scale war. Iran's asymmetric proxy networks, which the Iran state has improved for decades, has always outperformed the GCC proxy networks, which in contrast, are disintegrated, and thus, abandoned fragmented and disintegrated networks. This explains the low-cost indirect strategies, used to replace direct engagement, as a result of sanctions, which has a cost, and the numerous diplomatic efforts, which include the most recent China facilitated Saudi-Iran diplomacy of 2023. This study also finds that to integrate systemic and domestic levels of analysis in order to fully understand Middle Eastern conflicts, which has largely been fragmented. Keywords: Iran relations, Middle Eastern, Conflict, Proxy Wars, Sanctions.
