Challenged By Iran, But US Alliance Still Firm

May 2007 | Political Risk Analysis

Our short-term political rating of 72.1 for Saudi Arabia against a long term rating of57.0 sums up our view that while we are confident of Riyadh's ability to weather the current storms brewing both externally and domestically, the democratic deficit is a key concern and potential threat to social stability going forward. Four primary, inter-related, developments are currently helping to re-fashion Saudi policy and will impact upon future stability: the emergence of the al-Qaeda threat, the influx of petro-dollars thanks to elevated world oil prices, the fall-out from the 2003 US invasion of Iraq and the rise of Iran as

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