Saudi Arabia is
conquering Iran.
At least it is in this computer
generated animation
showing the kingdom's 
young crown prince
Mohammed bin Salman,
known as M.B.S.,
leading his forces
to an easy victory.
A Cold War between
Saudi Arabia and Iran
is already roiling
the Middle East,
fueling the fighting
in Yemen and Syria
and tensions in Iraq,
Lebanon, and beyond.
But this video takes
that confrontation
to a comical new height—
a fantasy invasion.
Until the recent rise of M.B.S,
this kind of propaganda
was almost unheard of
in the staid kingdom.
Some scholars say
the video may even
offer a window into the hawkish
mindset of M.B.S. himself,
foreshadowing more
conflict across the region.
An official of the Saudi
embassy in Washington
said the prince had nothing
to do with the video.
It appeared in
December on YouTube,
social media, and the websites 
of Saudi newspapers.
But if M.B.S. did not
authorize it,
the cartoon must at least 
have won his approval.
The anonymous
makers of the video
had significant resources.
They simultaneously
released the video
in several languages,
including Turkish
Mandarin and Hebrew.
They received instant promotion
in news media controlled
by the royal court,
and they knew
the visual details of
Iranian naval vessels,
as well as the vast
Saudi arsenal.
The animation shows off 
billions of dollars worth
of American, British, 
and Chinese made weapons.
It is a fearsome
display of hardware,
but also underscores
the Western role
in backing M.B.S. 
and the Saudis.
The video begins with 
a vow from the prince:
We will not wait until the
fight is in Saudi Arabia,
we will bring the fight to Iran.
We then see a Saudi aid
ship in the Persian Gulf,
notably labeled here 
as the Arabian Gulf.
In January, shortly after this
animation appeared,
Saudi Arabia announced
that its coalition would
give $1.5 billion 
in new aid to Yemen.
The kingdom has led an air 
and sea assault for almost
three years to try to defeat a
Yemeni group allied with Iran.
The war has left thousands
of Yemeni civilians
dead and the country engulfed
by famine and disease.
The Iranian ships that
appear next are realistic.
Years of sanctions
and isolation have
left most of Iran’s military
out of date and poorly equipped.
But it has built up a fleet of
small, fast boats like these.
Last spring the White
House brokered a deal
for Saudi Arabia
to pay $6 billion
to the American company 
Lockheed Martin for four warships.
It was part of a total package
of arms deals with $10 billion.
Sir, sir! We have detected
incoming missiles.
Prepare the Patriots.
Saudi Arabia also has 
hundreds of Patriot missiles
from the American company
Raytheon like those seen here.
The kingdom is the
biggest foreign customer
for Typhoon jets from
the British company B.A.E.
And it also owns several
dozen British-made Tornadoes,
as seen here.
Boeing’s F15 fighter
jet is the bedrock
of the Saudi Arabian and
American military partnership.
President Obama approved
a deal for the kingdom
to spend billions
buying the jets.
It was the most
expensive weapons deal
to any foreign country
at the time, an effort
to placate the
kingdom's opposition
to the Iranian
nuclear agreement.
Get me the Eastern Winds.
The kingdom also recently 
acknowledged that it has acquired
Chinese-made 
Eastern Winds missiles,
which could carry 
a nuclear warhead.
We then see Saudi missiles
destroy Iran’s Bushehr
civilian nuclear power plant.
This leads to 
a ground invasion.
In 2016 Saudi Arabia paid 
the American company
General Dynamics
$1.2 billion
for more than 
100 Abrams tanks.
But the kingdom doesn’t
have transport boats
to get the tanks 
to Iran.
The cowering figure 
near the end
is Major General 
Qassim Suleimani,
commander of Iran's
paramilitary Quds Force.
He's known as the chess master
moving Iranian proxy forces
throughout the region.
At the end, cartoon Iranians
cheer their Saudi liberators.
But flesh and blood Iranians
are unlikely to welcome
Saudi armed forces.
Perhaps most notably, 
the crowd appears to cheer
for the prince, M.B.S., 
as much as for his father,
King Salman.
