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Saudi Arabia during the Cold War
''' At the beginning of the 20th century, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was governed by Grand Prince Abdullah Bin Abdul-Aziz, the son of Saud, the founder of Saudi Arabia.

The government of Saudi Arabia is not founded on a constitution or Bill of Rights. The country is now run by royal family members and Wahhabi clerics, a religious establishment.

The Wahhabi clerics are conservative muslims who are inspired by Mohammed ben Abdelwahhab, an 18th century cleric who advocated a strict respect of Islam in its historical form. The Al Saud family conquered the land now known as Saudi Arabia in the name of God and the Quran.

History
Up until the 1900’s, the Arabian Peninsula was a land of warring tribes; there was no unity among them until the reign of King Abdul-Aziz.

King Abdul-Aziz set out, in 1902, to conquer the Peninsula along with 60 men. To do so, he sought the help of the Ikhwan: nomadic Bedouins with very good fighting skill.

The Ikhwan were fervent wahhabi muslim puritans and to convince them to fight on his side, Abdul-Aziz had to convert his family to their version of Islam. By 1926, Abdul-Aziz and the Ikhwan warriors had captured the Holy Shrines: Mecca and Medina.

The Wahhabis wanted to create an Empire and propagate their version of Islam but when King Abdulaziz tried to restrain them, they rebelled and accused him of infidelity.

In order to stay in power, King Abdul-Aziz had to destroy the Ikhwan. He turned to the Ulama in Riyadh, the moral guardians of the realm. They released a fatwa which stated that the Ikhwan had no right to rebel against their ruler. King Abdulaziz then crushed the Ikhwan in 1927.

In 1932, Abdulaziz declared himself king and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was created. King AbdulAziz became the kingdom’s chief defender in the faith.

In order to exploit the oil fields, which were first discovered in 1931, King Abdulaziz had to invite foreign nations. In 1933, the first foreign oil prospectors arrived in the kingdom. The British showed interest but it was the Americans that paid 170,000 $ in gold to exploit one of the biggest oil fields on earth. The Arab-American Oil Company, or ARAMCO was then created.

By 1945, the US urgently needed oil supplies to support war efforts around the globe.

During a meeting between Franklin Roosevelt and King Abdulaziz, the two leaders made a deal which subsists to this day. The US agreed to ensure Saudi Arabia’s security, with the creation of the Dahran airbase, in return for cheap access to oil. President Roosevelt also agreed that the USA would not intervene in Palestine without Abdulaziz’s and the Jews’ consent.

In 1947, the UN assembled to vote for the partition plan in Palestine. When Harry Truman supported the partition plan, Saudi Arabia felt betrayed.

Ever since the partition plan, Saudi Arabia hasn’t recognised the existence of Israel and has been at war with it. Although King Abdulaziz felt disappointed, he knew he still needed American protection.

When King Abdulaziz died in 1953, his first son Prince Saud became King and his second son, Prince Faisal was given charge of the foreign affairs.

King Saud maintained close relations with the Americans and became a regular visitor to the country’s oil rich Eastern province. Many Americans had settled at ARAMCO’s compounds and they soon became very modern.

During that period, Saudi Arabia gained a significant amount of money but spent a lot as well. King Saud was largely criticised for his handling of finances and addiction to alcohol, which was kept quiet.

Since Gamal Abdel Nasser’s rise to power in Egypt in 1952, the balance of power in the Middle East changed. Nasser allied himself with the USSR and became a socialist and Pan Arabist. He represented an important threat to Saudi Arabia and the United States. Saudi Arabia didn’t want to become communist because that meant modernisation, which it resisted in the name of Islam. President Eisenhower then met with King Saud and renewed his lease on the Dahran airbase in exchange for money and military equipment. Eisenhower’s plan to make King Faisal an alternative arab leader seemed impossible as he clearly didn’t know how to run a government. In the eyes of the United States, Faisal was their last hope.

Faisal’s brothers knew something had to be done and turned to the religious leaders from whom they obtained a fatwa making Faisal King in 1964.

When King Faisal came to power, he decided to allow women acces to education and to keep the peace with the religious establishments, he made Saudi Arabia a sanctuary for extremist muslims from abroad.

In 1967, Faisal reconcilied with Nasser as they both wanted to exterminate Israel but the Israelis crushed the arab armies in a matter of days. Following the arab leaders’ defeat, Nasser accused the US of helping the Israelis. This accusation triggered riots from the Saudis at ARAMCO and the American community was asked to move out.

King Faisal accepted that the American community stay on the condition that the US presses the Israelis to evacuate the West Bank, Ghaza, the Sinai region and East Jerusalem.

When the Arab League got together, they pressured Faisal to use oil as a weapon. In the 1970’s, Saudi Arabia became aware of the importance of its natural resources and started negotiating the ownership of ARAMCO and King Faisal pressed the US to find a solution to the Palestinian matter without success.

In October 1973, the Yom Kippur War broke out and Israel turned to the USA for weapons as the arab armies were gaining ground and the Israeli supplies were running low. As the arab armies were armed by the USSR and the USA did not want to see soviet weaponry triumph over American weaponry, the US started shipping supplies to Israel. In reaction to this, King Faisal decided to contribute in an oil embargo against the United States. Oil became scarce and the prices dramatically increased.

The US secretary of State Kissinger started working on a peace plan but progress was slow and 5 months into the embargo, the Pentagon started to consider military intervention. The USA could not afford to see their oil supplies disrupted as it was affecting the ongoing war in Vietnam. When King Faisal was informed that the US were fighting communists in Vietnam, he agreed to lift the embargo and by 1974 the boycott was over.

In march 1975; King Faisal was shot to death by one of his nephews. His successor was Khalid bin Abdulaziz, Saudi Arabia’s fourth King. During his rule, the country’s wealth increased and Saudi Arabia very rapidly developed. Within months, the country was completely transformed. However, the Boom triggered corruption and the worldly leaders lost respect and credibility in the eyes of the religious conservatives. The royal family was criticized for modernizing and westernizing the country.

In November 1979, radicals hijacked the mosque in Mecca. These radicals wanted to send a strong message to the population and warn them that they had deviated from God and Islam. The Royal family went to the Ulama and the clerics issued a fatwa allowing the government to use force to retake the mosque. After 18 days, the army took control of the holy shrine and executed over 120 militants. After the hijacking, Saudi Arabia wanted to appear more conservative and spent millions of $ on religious education. They taught Wahhabism as the only true form of Islam. Religious taxes were given to the poor in neighbouring countries.

That same year, the USSR invaded Afghanistan and the anti communist USA and Saudi Arabia agreed to give an equal amount to finance the war. Thousands of young Saudis were sent to fight alongside the Mujahidin.

In 1982, Prince Fahd became King after his brother Khalid died of a heart attack. When Fahd came to power, the Iran/Iraq war was ongoing. Fahd then provided Saddam Hussein with money and military equipment to fight the Shia in Iraq.

However, eights years later, Iraq invaded Kuweit. Oussama Bin Laden offered his help to the royals but they declined his offer. Saudi Arabia was hesitant on allowing thousands of American soldiers in the country as it would be disapproved by the religious conservatives. King Fahd, seeing the growing threat from the Iraqis, wanted the US to intervene but he needed the consent of the religious establishment so he turned to the Ulama and asked for a fatwa allowing foreign military assistance in case of need.

More than half a million American soldiers started arriving in the kingdom. To finance the war, the US administration borrowed money from Saudi Arabia and left it indebted. After the victory over Kuweit, Saudi Arabia’s security was assured but the American soldiers didn’t withdraw and their presence irritated many, especially the conservative muslims.