SAUDI ARABIA - DAY 5 OF 6 · ~7 MIN
Rivalry with Iran, Yemen, and the New Regional Order
It is September 2019, just before dawn, at Abqaiq and Khurais in the Eastern Province. Explosions rip through facilities that sit at the heart of Saudi oil processing capacity. Fires burn, global energy traders react instantly, and the kingdom's infrastructure suddenly looks vulnerable in a new way.
Contents — 7 sections
- OPENING SCENE
- 1979 CHANGES THE REGIONAL MAP
- IRAQ AFTER 2003
- BAHRAIN, THE ARAB SPRING, AND COUNTERREVOLUTION
- SYRIA, QATAR, AND COMPETING SUNNI CAMPS
- YEMEN: WAR, BORDER SECURITY, AND STRATEGIC OVERREACH
- ABQAIQ AND THE AGE OF DRONES
OPENING SCENE
It is September 2019, just before dawn, at Abqaiq and Khurais in the Eastern Province. Explosions rip through facilities that sit at the heart of Saudi oil processing capacity. Fires burn, global energy traders react instantly, and the kingdom's infrastructure suddenly looks vulnerable in a new way.
The physical damage is serious, but the strategic message matters even more. A state that built its global power on energy can be hit at the center of that power without a conventional invasion crossing its borders. The attack crystallizes a decade of Saudi fear: missiles, drones, proxies, and deniable strikes can impose costs without full-scale war.
Abqaiq is not the beginning of the Saudi-Iran rivalry, but it is one of its clearest contemporary images. The kingdom is rich, armed, and globally connected. Yet it still has to think like a state surrounded by indirect threats.
LOCKED AFTER THE PREVIEW
What's in the rest of Day 5
- 1979 CHANGES THE REGIONAL MAP
- IRAQ AFTER 2003
- BAHRAIN, THE ARAB SPRING, AND COUNTERREVOLUTION
- SYRIA, QATAR, AND COMPETING SUNNI CAMPS
- YEMEN: WAR, BORDER SECURITY, AND STRATEGIC OVERREACH
- ABQAIQ AND THE AGE OF DRONES