History of Saudi Arabia

The History and Significance of Saudi Arabia

This vast state, which excels in the quantity of its oil exports and its corresponding position in the regional politics of the Middle East and international economic relations, is not always understood as a military or geopolitical power. To be respected militarily, it must have the US strategic air base in Dhahran on its territory. To be respected geopolitically, it must have a network of oil rigs and refineries on its eastern coast, where high-quality oil is processed and sent—among other places—across the entire peninsula to the Yanbu'al-Bahr terminal, north of Jeddah. For Saudi Arabia to be a subject of Western attention, it must actively engage with its neighbours—other key states and local powers, such as revolutionary Islamic Iran (since 1979), the internally destabilised Iraq (since 2003), and Yemen, which has been torn apart by tribal conflicts (especially after 2011). The kingdom's prestige in the Arab (Islamic) world is also ensured by the fact that since 1924–1925, it has controlled the two holiest sites in Islam—Mecca, the destination of pilgrimages to the Kaaba shrine, and Medina, with which an important period of the Prophet Muhammad's life is associated and where his final resting place is located.