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<br /> It seems <keyword id="411927" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Saudi-women">Saudi women</keyword>’s miseries know no ends. Just when they thought their country is progressing towards social equality by allowing women to vote, Saudi Arabian grand mufti <keyword id="3118509" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Sheikh-Abdul-Aziz-bin-Abdullah">Sheikh Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah</keyword> issued a shocking official statement in the name of religion. This new <keyword id="47824" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="fatwa">fatwa</keyword> allows a man to eat his wife or parts of her body if the husband was afflicted with severe hunger and had no food available. The cleric cited <keyword id="6361097" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="islam">Islam</keyword>'s "sacrifice of women and obedience to her husband". <br /><br />

	It raised concern and debate over social media since yesterday evening.
<br /><br /> <keyword id="50996" type="COUNTRY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Saudi-Arabia">Saudi Arabia</keyword> has been a country which flogged women mercilessly for ordinary activities. They can’t drive, can’t open bank accounts and now this! Where is progressive development headed to? <br />
	<br />
	(Image credits: calnewport)

A man can eat his wife if suffering from ‘severe hunger’: New fatwa issued by Saudi Arabia

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://www.apimages.com/Search.aspx?st=k&amp;remem=x&amp;entity=&amp;kw=prince+alwaleed+&amp;intv=None&amp;shgroup=-10&amp;sh=10">AP Photo</a></span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul><li><strong>Eleven princes and dozens of former ministers were detained in a new anti-corruption probe in Saudi Arabia.</strong></li><li><strong>Also ousted was a prominent prince who headed the National Guard, and the billionaire investor Prince al-Waleed bin Talal.</strong></li><li><strong>The government said the anti-corruption committee has the right to issue arrest warrants, impose travel restrictions and freeze bank accounts.</strong></li></ul><p><br />Saudi Arabia's King Salman on Saturday removed a prominent prince who headed the National Guard, replaced the economy minister and announced the creation of a new anti-corruption committee.</p><p>Also arrested was the<span> billionaire Prince al-Waleed bin Talal, a prominent investor in US companies including Twitter and Citigroup, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/04/world/middleeast/saudi-arabia-waleed-bin-talal.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fworld&amp;action=click&amp;contentCollection=world&amp;region=stream&amp;module=stream_unit&amp;version=latest&amp;contentPlacement=1&amp;pgtype=sectionfront" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the New York Times reported</a>.</span></p><p>The Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya <keyword id="6355005" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="News">news</keyword> channel also reported late Saturday that 11 princes and dozens of former ministers were detained in a new anti-corruption probe headed by the kingdom's powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who was also named to oversee the new committee.</p><p>Al-Arabiya reported that the committee is looking into devastating and deadly floods that overwhelmed parts of the city of Jiddah in 2009 and is investigating the Saudi government's response to the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) virus that has killed several hundred people in the past few years.</p><p>Meanwhile, the kingdom's top council of clerics issued a statement saying it is an Islamic duty to fight corruption- essentially giving religious backing to the high-level arrests being reported.</p><p>The government said the anti-corruption committee has the right to issue arrest warrants, impose travel restrictions and freeze bank accounts. It can also trace funds, prevent the transfer of funds or the liquidation of assets and take other precautionary measures until cases are referred to the judiciary.</p><p>The royal order said the committee was established "due to the propensity of some people for abuse, putting their personal interest above public interest, and stealing public funds."</p><p>Saudi nationals have long complained of rampant corruption in government and of public funds being squandered or misused by people in power.</p><p>The 32-year-old crown prince has been seeking to attract greater international investments and improve the country's reputation as a place to do business. It's part of a larger effort to diversify the economy away from dependence on oil revenue.</p><p>The king ousted one of the country's highest-level royals from power, removing Prince Miteb bin Abdullah as head of the National Guard. He was replaced by Prince Khalid bin Ayyaf al-Muqrin, who had held a senior post with the guard.</p><p>Prince Miteb's father was the late King Abdullah, who also had led the National Guard and had transformed it into a powerful and prestigious force tasked with protecting the ruling Al Saud family, as well as important holy sites in Mecca and Medina, and oil and gas sites.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Associated Press/Hassan Ammar</span></p><p class="caption">Prince Miteb bin Abdul Aziz, son of Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud, leaves the equestrian club following a horse racing competition in Janadriyah in the outskirts of the Saudi capital Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Thursday, Oct. 23, 2008.</p></div><p></p></div></div>Prince Miteb was once considered a contender for the throne. His ouster as head of the National Guard essentially sidelines one of the most formidable rivals to the current crown prince, who has amassed enormous power in less than three years since his father, King Salman, ascended to the throne.</p><p>It comes just three months after Prince Mohammed bin Nayef was ousted from the line of succession and from his post as interior minister, overseeing internal security.</p><p>With the two princes now sidelined, control of the kingdom's security apparatus is now largely centralized under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is also <keyword id="6354810" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Defense">defense</keyword> minister.</p><p>The monarch also replaced Minister of Economy and Planning Adel Fakeih with his deputy, Mohammad al-Tuwaijri.</p><p>Admiral Abdullah Al-Sultan was also sacked as commander of Saudi Naval Forces and replaced by Admiral Fahd bin Abdullah Al-Ghifaili.</p><p>___</p><p>Batrawy reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/excel-index-match-versus-vlookup-masters-find-data-2015-9">This is what separates the Excel masters from the wannabes</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

Saudi Arabia arrests 11 princes, including billionaire investor Prince al-Waleed bin Talal

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>AP Photo/Hassan Ammar</span></p><p class="caption">King Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud, left, speaks with his son Prince Mohammed on May 14, 2012.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul class="summary-list"><li><strong>Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has embarked on his first trip abroad following the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. </strong></li><li><strong>His trip comes as the investigations into journalist Jamal Khashoggi's murder are closing in. </strong></li><li><strong>Saudi Arabia has said the prince had no prior knowledge of the murder of the prominent Saudi journalist. But Turkey says the CIA has a "<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com.au/turkey-cia-has-a-wiretap-nailing-saudis-prince-in-the-khashoggi-case-2018-11">smoking gun</a>" tape nailing the prince to Khashoggi's case.</strong></li></ul><p><span>ABU DHABI (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman arrived in the United Arab Emirates on Thursday at the start of a tour of several Arab countries, his first trip abroad since the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi that caused a global outcry.</span></p><p><span>The prince, the country's de facto ruler, is also expected to participate in a G20 meeting in Buenos Aires at the end of the month which will be attended by leaders from the United States, Turkey and European countries.</span></p><p>The killing of Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist and a critic of the crown prince, at Riyadh's consulate in Istanbul six weeks ago has strained Saudi Arabia's ties with the West and battered Prince Mohammed's image abroad.</p><p>King Salman asked his chosen heir, known in the West as MBS, to conduct the tour "based on his keenness to deepen the kingdom's ties regionally and internationally", the Saudi Press Agency reported.</p><p>Prince Mohammed was greeted upon his arrival in the neighbouring UAE by Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nayhan, a close ally of MBS.</p><p>"We're proud of our deep-rooted ties. Close cooperation and a fruitful partnership lies in store for our countries. The UAE will always be a loving and supportive home for our brothers in Saudi Arabia," Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed said in a Twitter post.</p><p>Tunisian newspaper, Business News, said he is expected to visit Tunisia on Tuesday.</p><p>Saudi Arabia has said the prince had no prior knowledge of the murder of the prominent Saudi journalist. After offering numerous contradictory explanations, Riyadh said last week Khashoggi had been killed and his body dismembered when negotiations to persuade him to return to Saudi Arabia failed.</p><p>Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan has said the killing was ordered by the highest level of Saudi leadership but probably not from King Salman, putting the spotlight instead on the 33-year-old crown prince.</p><p>U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday Washington would remain a "steadfast partner" of Saudi Arabia despite saying that Prince Mohammed may have known about the plan to murder Khashoggi.</p>     <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nuclear-bomb-launch-procedure-us-government-president-2017-11">Here's how easy it is for the US president to launch a nuclear weapon</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

Saudi crown prince goes on a tour abroad as the investigation into Jamal Khashoggi's murder is closing in

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right"><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div>Saudi Arabia's royal family has complex structure, and because the late king's replacement is also in poor health, there's been some concern about the country's succession plan.</p>
<p>Last month, Saudi Arabia's 91-year-old <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/saudi-king-abdullah-is-dead-2015-1">King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz died</a> and his half-brother, 79-year-old Crown Prince Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, took his place.</p>
<p>Salman is reportedly suffering from dementia and has told the family's Allegiance Council to consider Abdullah's 69-year-old half-brother Muqrin bin Abdulaziz his heir.</p>
<p>Abdullah <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/simon-henderson-succession-could-place-saudi-arabia-in-crisis-2014-12">named Muqrin "deputy crown prince"</a> last March. Muqrin is the youngest surviving son of Saudi Arabia's founder, and Abdullah's decision to name him the deputy crown prince went against the unspoken rule that succession passes down according to age. The late king has two other half-brothers.</p>
<p>And now Prince Mohammed, Salman's nephew, is the country's interior minister and deputy crown prince, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-saudis-just-gave-their-answer-to-the-dynasty-succession-crisis-2015-1">making</a> him the second in line to the throne after Muqrin. Mohammed is in his 30s.</p>
<p>Here's a breakdown of how the royal family is structured:</p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container click-to-enlarge"><div class="image"><a title_source="Reuters" title_caption="" class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/54cf7a336da8117a11eecfad-960/saudi%20royal%20family%20chart.png"><span class="sprites click-to-enlarge-icon" title="Click to enlarge"></span></a><p class="source"><span>Reuters</span></p></div><p></p></div></p>

Here's a who's who of the Saudi royal family

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>REUTERS/Fahad Shadeed </span></p><p class="caption">Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abdul-Aziz (C), brother of Saudi King Abdullah, is greeted upon his arrival at the graduation ceremony of police cadets at the Public Security Training City in Riyadh, May 23, 2010. </p></div><p></p></div></div>Saudi Arabia has executed 82 people so far this year, putting it on course to double the number of executions carried out in 2015. The figure was <a href="http://www.reprieve.org.uk/press/saudi-executions-pass-80-for-first-quarter-of-2016-on-course-to-double-2015-total/">uncovered by human rights organisation Reprieve</a> who say Saudi's current pace of executions is <span>record-breaking.</span></p><p><span>If Saudi doesn't slow down with its beheading spree, Reprieve estimates that they will kill 320 prisoners this year. If this happens it will continue a recent trend for the country to double the number of prisoners it kills each year. In 2015 it executed 158 and in 2014 it executed 88. </span></p><p>The figures from Reprieve come just a week after Defence Secretary Michael Fallon <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-to-lead-gulf-maritime-force">went to Saudi Arabia</a> and met <span>Crown Prince Mohammed bin Naif, the man who runs the Saudi Interior Ministry, which is responsible for carrying out the beheadings. Here's <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-to-lead-gulf-maritime-force">the statement</a> the Ministry of Defence put out after Fallon's meetings:</span></p><p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span>During these talks he [Fallon] reiterated the importance of working together to deal with global threats, including countering the poisonous ideology of Daesh [ISIS], and regional instability.</span></p><p>There are currently three men in Saudi Arabia who have been sentenced to death for crimes they are alleged to have committed before they became adults. They are Dawoud al Marhoon, Ali al Nimr and Abdullah al Zaher - all of them were found guilty of alleged crimes relating to protests calling for reform in Saudi. </p><p>Following <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/saudi-arabia-on-course-to-double-number-of-beheadings-this-year-a6964601.html">a report in the Independent</a> about these three cases, the MOD <a href="https://modmedia.blog.gov.uk/2016/04/02/defence-in-the-media-2-april-2016/">put out a statement</a> saying they have the "expectation" that the three men won't be executed.</p><p style="padding-left: 30px;">The Defence Secretary visited Saudi Arabia to discuss a range of regional issues. The <keyword id="6354868" type="COUNTRY" weightage="60" keywordseo="UK">UK</keyword> is opposed to the death penalty in all circumstances and we make our views well known to Saudi Arabia. We have raised these particular cases at the highest levels and will continue to do so. Our expectation remains that the three individuals will not be executed.</p><p>Many of the people who have recently been executed by Saudi Arabia took part in protests against the government and were <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/saudi-arabia-executed-47-people-and-shia-cleric-sheikh-nimr-al-nimr-on-terrorism-offences-2016-1">convicted of terrorism offences</a>.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-shares-meme-attacking-cruz-wife-twitter-2016-3">'The images are worth a thousand words': Trump shares a meme attacking Ted Cruz's wife</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="l4ZWFiMjE66X4z5AHcAfIOL6-IkJVWFt" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

It looks like Saudi Arabia is going to double its beheading count again this year

<p class="source">
			AP</p>
		<p class="caption">
			Russian President Vladimir Putin has the world in his hands, according to Forbes.</p>
	
	

<a href="http://www.forbes.com/powerful-people/list/#tab:overall" target="_blank">Forbes has just declared</a> Russian President Vladimir Putin to be the most powerful person on Earth.

<p>
	"As the undisputed, unpredictable, and unaccountable head of an energy-rich, nuclear-tipped state, no one would ever call him weak," <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/carolinehoward/2014/11/05/putin-vs-obama-the-worlds-most-powerful-people-2014/">writes Forbes Senior Editor Caroline Howard</a>.</p>
<p>
	For the second year in row, Putin edges out US President Barack Obama for the top spot.</p>
<p> With the exception of Pope Francis, the top six people are all in <keyword id="6358883" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Politics">politics</keyword>.</p>
<p>
	The business world cracks the top 10 in the form of Google cofounders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, who are tied at No. 9.</p>
<p>
	At only 30 years old, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is the youngest person on the list, while the 90-year-old king of Saudi Arabia, Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud, is the oldest.</p>
<p>
	Newcomers include Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Alibaba CEO Jack Ma.</p>
<p>
	<span>Here <a href="http://www.forbes.com/powerful-people/list/" target="_blank">are the world's 25 most powerful people</a>: </span></p>
<p>
	<span><strong>1. Vladimir Putin, </strong>President of Russia<br />
	<strong>2. Barack Obama,</strong> President of the US<br />
	<strong>3. Xi Jinping,</strong> General Secretary of the Communist Party of China<br />
	<strong>4. Pope Francis,</strong> Head of the Roman Catholic Church<br />
	<strong>5. Angela Merkel,</strong> Chancellor of Germany<br />
	<strong>6. Janet Yellen,</strong> Chair of the Board of Governors of the United States Federal Reserve System<br />
	<strong>7. Bill Gates,</strong> Co-chair of the Bill &amp; Melinda Gates Foundation<br />
	<strong>8. <strong>Mario Draghi,</strong></strong> President of the European Central Bank<br />
	<strong>9. Sergey Brin and Larry Page,</strong> Cofounders of Google<br />
	<strong>10. David Cameron, </strong></span><span>Prime minister of the United Kingdom</span><br />
	<span><strong>11. Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud,</strong> King of Saudi Arabia<br />
	<strong>12. Warren Buffett, </strong>CEO of Berkshire Hathaway<br />
	<strong>13. Li Keqiang, </strong>Premier of China<br />
	<strong>14. Carlos Slim Helu, </strong>Honorary chairman of América Móvil<br />
	<strong>15. Narendra Modi, </strong>Prime Minister of India<br />
	<strong>16. Jeff Bezos, </strong>CEO of Amazon<br />
	<strong>17. Francois Hollande, </strong>President of France<br />
	<strong>18. Jamie Dimon, </strong>CEO of JPMorgan Chase<br />
	<strong>19. Ali Hoseini-Khamenei, </strong>Grand Ayatollah of Iran<br />
	<strong>20. Rex Tillerson, </strong>CEO of Exxon Mobil<br />
	<strong>21. Jeffrey Immelt, </strong>CEO of General Electric<br />
	<strong>22. Mark Zuckerberg, </strong>CEO of Facebook<br />
	<strong>23. Michael Bloomberg, </strong>CEO of Bloomberg<br />
	<strong>24. Charles Koch and David Koch, </strong>CEO and EVP of Koch Industries<br />
	<strong>25. Timothy Cook, </strong>CEO of Apple</span></p>
<p>
	<span>For the full list, head to <a href="http://www.forbes.com/powerful-people/list/#tab:overall" target="_blank">Forbes</a>. <span> </span></span></p>
<p class="tagline">
	Disclosure: Jeff Bezos is an investor in Business Insider through his personal investment company Bezos Expeditions.</p>

The 25 Most Powerful People In The World, According To Forbes

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right"><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div>Rarely has one of Saudi Arabia's ageing rulers moved so nimbly. No sooner had King Salman taken the crown on January 23rd after the death of his half-brother, Abdullah, than he immediately settled one of the most pressing questions of his rule: who would be the next king and, crucially, who would be the king after that. "The king did 90% of his job in just one day!" jokes one Saudi.</p>
<p>The problem of the succession has long unsettled the Saudi monarchy. Since the death of the modern dynasty's founder, Abdel Aziz bin Saud, the crown has passed from one of his many sons to the next. But they are dead or ageing. Salman, the sixth sibling, is already 79. Sooner or later, power would have to be handed to the next generation, but who in the proliferation of princes would be worthy? Salman decided that after Muqrin, the youngest of his half-brothers who had been appointed second-in-line by Abdullah, the crown would pass to his nephew, Muhammad bin Nayef, the minister of the interior, regarded as a competent campaigner against jihadists in the kingdom. In 2009 al-Qaeda tried to kill him when a militant was granted a private audience with the prince and detonated a bomb in his underpants.</p>
<p>The smooth transfer of power belies the view, common abroad, that Saudi Arabia must inevitably collapse due to its seemingly insuperable contradictions. Take just one incongruity: in a country of avid users of social media, where many of its young people are given public scholarships to study in the West, Saudi Arabia still lives by a particularly puritanical strain of Islam and severely limits the rights of its women--including the right to drive cars and to travel abroad without permission from a male relative.</p>
<p>At a time of violent chaos in much of the Arab world, turmoil in Saudi Arabia would be especially worrying given its central place in oil markets and Islam. It is home to the religion's two holiest sites, Mecca and Medina; and its oil wealth has disseminated its distinctively intolerant strand of Islam that critics call Wahhabism.</p>
<p>Thus far Saudi Arabia has proved naysayers wrong. One reason is the enduring pact between the Al Saud dynasty and the Wahhabi clerics. In exchange for conferring religious legitimacy on the family, the state helps the clerics impose an extreme brand of Islamic law that includes stoning adulterers and flogging of dissenters, such as the liberal blogger, Raif Badawi, who dared to mock clerics for, among other things, claiming that astronomy provokes scepticism of sharia, or Islamic law.</p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"></div><p></p></div></div></p>
<p>Another reason for the longevity of the Saudi system is plentiful oil money, which has allowed the monarch to bestow generous benefits and government jobs on the population of 30m. Saudis get housing loans, education and health care. More than 100,000 study abroad on scholarships. Even with the halving of the price of oil, the kingdom has foreign reserves of $740 billion. There has been cash enough to pay off truculent princes and clerics.</p>
<p>Some compare the Al Sauds to an increasingly professional company board. In 2006 the late King Abdullah set up an "allegiance council" with 35 members, representing all branches of the dynasty, to smooth the transfer of power. The word is that they voted on Prince Muhammad's appointment--if true it would be a rare show of democracy, if only within the ruling family. Those who were passed over, for instance Miteb bin Abdullah, the late king's son and head of the National Guard, appear to accept that collective survival is more important than individual ambition.</p>
<p>And what of Wahhabi strictures? Some are desert traditions cloaked in religion. Moreover, many of the tribes embraced the ideology as the bond to create a nation. Many Saudis would prefer a more relaxed social code. They chafe at the closing of shops during each of the day's five prayers. But in places like Jeddah, away from the conservative Nejd region, women wear their cloak, or abaya, more loosely; and women can mingle with men, contrary to the law. Abdullah reined in the worst excesses of the clerics and religious police.</p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>That the population remains genuinely and profoundly conservative helps. Few Saudis question the legitimacy of the Al Sauds. Look at the country's history, many say: before its founding in 1932 tribal war was frequent; disease was rife; and life expectancy low. Ibn Saud ended that by imposing his rule through war, marriages and pacts with other families. The chaos of the Arab spring has only reinforced the wariness of Saudis to put at risk the stability and security they enjoy at home.</p>
<p>Calls for social reform are louder than political ones. But "what we call liberals here is not what we call liberals outside," says one Saudi academic. Many praise the late king for changes that included some limited freedoms for women. The middle classes think their rulers are more tolerant than the population. Better a monarchy that acts as a buffer than democracy that may strengthen conservatives, they say.</p>
<p>Indeed, the greater challenge to the current dispensation has come not from liberals but from the devout. In 1979 a group of radicals led by Juhayman al-Otaiba took over the Grand Mosque in Mecca for over two weeks. In the 1990s the Sahwa, a group of sheikhs, accused the royals of being liberal apostates. And in the early 2000s al-Qaeda carried out a series of bombings in Riyadh, targeting foreigners and royals, whom they accused of being in cahoots with the "Crusaders".</p>
<p>Nowadays the main security threat comes from outside--Iran's expansion, chaos in Yemen and jihadists inspired by Islamic State (IS), which has turned parts of Iraq and Syria into a "caliphate". Saudi officials argue that jihadists are deviants; the Saudi version of Islam, though puritanical, requires obedience to the ruler. Jihadism, Saudis insist, comes from the violent rebelliousness of the Muslim Brotherhood, born out of the struggle against British colonial rule in Egypt. They have a point. But more liberal strains of the Brotherhood accept democratic politics. IS's anti-Shia sectarianism, and its literal reading of ancient Islamic practices such as beheading and slavery, draw much from Wahhabism.</p>
<p>As a result, Saudi Arabia's rulers can expect the outside world to pay close attention to the religious teachings of its sheikhs. At home, the Saudi regime has learned to quash jihadism through a mixture of the iron fist and rehabilitation programmes involving doctrinal debates, social benefits and clan guarantees by the families of ex-fighters.</p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div></p>
<p>Many Saudis thus seem pleased with the appointment of Prince Muhammad as deputy crown prince. He rid the kingdom of al-Qaeda, though liberals note he also suppressed peaceful dissent. There is less satisfaction about the appointment of King Salman's youngest son, Muhammad bin Salman, to two powerful roles: head of the royal court, in effect the king's gatekeeper, and defence minister.</p>
<p>The Al Sauds cannot look to past stability as a guarantee of a safe future. Several factors are rattling the kingdom. One is the fall in the price of oil, which still accounts for more than 80% of budget revenues. Another is rising inequality. GDP per capita is only around $26,000 per year, compared with $43,000 in the nearby United Arab Emirates. With a youthful population, the economy needs to expand and diversify to provide jobs--a large group of disgruntled young men could be a recipe for radicalism. A third problem is the country's profligate use of energy. On current trends of energy consumption, the country may have no oil to export by 2030.</p>
<p>Social media have led to bursts of freedom of expression, including unprecedented criticism of corruption. Growing intolerance for dissent, including from the minority Shia, risks provoking a backlash. Those who have received funding to study abroad are coming back with new ideas; female graduates from Western universities will hardly put up with the current restrictions for ever. Some fret that Abdullah's successors will be less keen on reform. Having resolved the succession, they need to move as quickly on other matters too.</p>
<p>Click <a href="https://subscriptions.economist.com/nwcd">here</a> to subscribe to The Economist</p>

Saudi Arabia is more stable than people assume - for now

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>After the death of King Abdullah, the Saudi Kingdom is <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-saudi-dynasty-succession-crisis-2015-1#ixzz3Pe8mP0x2">facing</a> its biggest dynastic challenge in 50 years.</p>
<p>Abduallah's <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/heres-everything-we-know-about-the-new-saudi-king-2015-1">half-brother Salman,</a> 79, will now assume the throne, and the 69-year-old Muqrin is <span>currently his crown prince and heir. </span></p>
<p><span>After that, there are no more sons of Saudi Arabia founder <span>King Abdulaziz Al-Saud, so</span> <span>power then passes to a select few of Al-Saud's many grandsons. </span></span></p>
<p>"Given that there are scores of princes in [the third generation], the potential for discord is high," Liz Sly of The Washington Post <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/appointment-of-deputy-heir-to-throne-stirs-controversy-in-saudi-arabia/2014/05/26/1397be64-53cd-4a9c-b3f9-78c904abee92_story.html">explained last year</a>. "Whoever inherits the throne is likely to anoint his own brothers as future heirs, thereby cutting out multiple cousins from access to the throne and the patronage it provides."</p>
<p>However, Saudi Arabia's new king is moving swiftly to make sure that a looming succession crisis - driven by chaotic jostling for power - does not happen.</p>
<p><strong>King Salman has <a href="http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/ML_SAUDI_ARABIA?SITE=AP&amp;SECTION=HOME&amp;TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&amp;CTIME=2015-01-23-06-23-47">named</a> his nephew Prince Mohammed bin Nayef as deputy crown prince, making him the second-in-line to the throne behind Muqrin. </strong></p>
<p><span><span><span>Mohammed, believed to be in his 30s, is currently <span>the country's interior minister.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p><span><span><span><span>"Like his father, Nayef, who was a formidable power in Saudi Arabia until his death in 2012, Mohammed is head of the powerful Interior Ministry that oversees police and now too holds the title of crown prince," Abdullah al-Shihri and Aya Batrawy of the Associated Press <a href="http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/ML_SAUDI_ARABIA?SITE=AP&amp;SECTION=HOME&amp;TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&amp;CTIME=2015-01-23-06-23-47">note</a>. </span></span></span></span></p>
<p><span><span><span><span><span>Prince <span>Mohammed's father had a special place in the royal family.</span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p><span>Nayef, like Salman, was <span>one of seven sons born to one of Saudi Arabia founder King Abdul-Aziz Al Saud's most favored wives, Hussa bint Ahmad Sudeiri. The seven full brothers are </span></span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">known as the </span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">"Sudeiri Seven," and are seen as a center of power within the family. </span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">Nayef was one of </span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">Abdullah's first two crown princes.</span></p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div></p>
<p class="ap-story-p">"We will continue adhering to the correct policies which Saudi Arabia has followed since its establishment," Salman said in a televised speech on Friday.</p>
<p class="ap-story-p"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">King Salman's royal decree places Prince Mohammed at the forefront of the historic generational transition that spurs succession fears. <span>And the time for the third generation of the Saud royal family to rule the dynasty is coming sooner rather than later. </span></span></p>
<p>Salman's health is a question - he has suffered at least one stroke - and Muqrin is the youngest of <span>King Abdulaziz, <span>who founded the Saudi state in 1932.</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">This chart from </span><a href="http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/after-king-abdullah-succession-in-saudi-arabia">The Washington Institute</a><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"> lays out the line of succession up to this point (Muqrin is one of the "19 other surviving sons").</span></p>
<p><span class="KonaFilter image-container click-to-enlarge"><span class="image" data-post-image=""><a href="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/538cbc47ecad04016e21f679-960/screen%20shot%202014-06-02%20at%202.02.17%20pm.png" class="zoomin"><span class="sprites click-to-enlarge-icon"></span></a></span></span></p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image"></div><p></p></div></p>

The Saudis Just Gave Their Answer To The Dynasty Succession Crisis

<p><span class="KonaFilter image-container display-table click-to-enlarge"><span><span data-post-image="" class="image"><a title_source="REUTERS" title_caption="Saudi royal guards stand on duty during the Janadriya culture festival at Der'iya in Riyadh" class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/538478bd69bedd2a02dfdba3-960/saudi-dynasty-moves-to-forestall-succession-crisis-1.jpg"><span class="sprites click-to-enlarge-icon" title="Click to enlarge"></span></a><span class="source"><span>REUTERS</span></span><span class="caption">Saudi royal guards stand on duty during the Janadriya culture festival at Der'iya in Riyadh</span></span><p></p></span></span></p>
<p>The Saudi dynasty is facing its&#xa0;biggest dynastic challenge in 50 years, and Game of Thrones-style cracks are showing in the imminent transition<span>&#xa0;from King Abdullah's rule.</span></p>
<p>Abdullah, 90, is <a href="http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/01/03/world/middleeast/saudi-king-abdullah-is-hospitalized-with-pneumonia.html?_r=0&amp;referrer=">currently&#xa0;</a><span><a href="http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/01/03/world/middleeast/saudi-king-abdullah-is-hospitalized-with-pneumonia.html?_r=0&amp;referrer=">battling pneumonia</a> and temporarily needed help from a breathing tube last week.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">The&#xa0;</span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">king assumed the throne in 2005 as the country's sixth king. <span>His&#xa0;</span><span>immediate successor, Crown Prince Salman, is 79 and</span><span>&#xa0;also reportedly in poor health.&#xa0;</span>Abdullah named his youngest brother, Muqrin, as the deputy heir last March.</span></p>
<p>The choice of Muqrin, a British-educated fighter pilot who has close ties to the U.S., is controversial partly because he is the&#xa0;<span>son of a Yemeni concubine who was never formally married to his father, <span>King Abdulaziz Al-Saud,</span>&#xa0;who founded the Saudi state in 1932.</span></p>
<p>"He is not a real prince; his mother was a slave and there are other brothers who are more competent," a former Saudi official <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/appointment-of-deputy-heir-to-throne-stirs-controversy-in-saudi-arabia/2014/05/26/1397be64-53cd-4a9c-b3f9-78c904abee92_story.html">told Liz Sly of the Washington Post</a> last year. "Nobody believes Muqrin can become king."</p>
<p><span><span>The newly-created title effectively allows Muqrin, 69, to bypass at&#xa0;least two other brothers, which goes against the unspoken rule that succession passes down according to age.&#xa0;</span></span></p>
<p><span><span><span>Over the last six decades,&#xa0;the succession mostly passed&#xa0;brother to brother in order of their age. But the last of the current line of brothers will die soon, passing power to the third generation of the family.</span></span></span></p>
<p><span><span class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><span><span data-post-image="" class="image on-image"></span><p></p></span></span>"Placing Crown Prince Salman and Prince Muqrin in line to succeed Abdullah effectively delays the time of reckoning when the next generation of princes, the founder's grandsons, will be moved into positions of high authority," Rick Gladstone of <a href="http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/01/03/world/middleeast/saudi-king-abdullah-is-hospitalized-with-pneumonia.html?_r=0&amp;referrer=">The New York Times notes</a>.</span></p>
<p><span>Sly explained the problem that consequently arises when the next generation takes over:</span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">"Given that there are scores of princes in [the third generation], the potential for discord is high. Whoever inherits the throne is likely to anoint his own brothers as future heirs, thereby cutting out multiple cousins from access to the throne and the patronage it provides."</span></p>
<p>The conservative kingdom has recently&#xa0;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/opec-now-believes-in-letting-the-market-take-care-of-oil-prices-2014-12">refused</a> to cut oil production to stop prices from falling further, preferring to let the market run its course. That policy <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/what-saudi-succession-would-mean-for-oil-2014-12">could change at any time</a>, such as a situation in which the royal family wants to stir public support during a succession.</p>
<p><span>This chart from <a href="http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/after-king-abdullah-succession-in-saudi-arabia">The Washington Institute</a>&#xa0;lays out the line of succession up to this point (Muqrin is one of the "19 other surviving sons":</span></p>
<p><span><span><span class="KonaFilter image-container click-to-enlarge"><span data-post-image="" class="image"><a title_source="Washington Institute" title_caption="" class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/538cbc47ecad04016e21f679-960/screen%20shot%202014-06-02%20at%202.02.17%20pm.png"><span class="sprites click-to-enlarge-icon" title="Click to enlarge"></span></a><span class="source"><span><a href="http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/after-king-abdullah-succession-in-saudi-arabia">Washington Institute</a></span></span></span><p></p></span><br /></span></span></p>

Here Comes The Saudi Dynasty Succession Crisis ...

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>Amid heated debate over the risks and advantages of the Obama administration negotiating a nuclear agreement with Iran, some of its potential secondary consequences have received less attention. </p><p>Any deal will likely allow the US-listed state sponsor of terrorism to operate several thousand uranium enrichment centrifuges. The agreement would place restrictions on Iran's ability to accumulate uranium past a certain level of enrichment for a period of 10 years, temporarily cutting off Tehran's path to a nuclear weapon and transforming relations between Iran and the US.</p><p>Critics worry that a deal would exchange existing the Obama administration's leverage for a series of limited and non-binding commitments that wouldn't even roll back Iran's existing nuclear infrastructure.</p><p>But there could be second-order consequences to even a successful agreement. If neighboring countries believe that Iran will exploit a deal's various shortcomings or ambiguities, they may build up their own nuclear capabilities to counter a country that many Middle Eastern states believe to be an expansionist, revisionist power hostile to the region's existing order.</p><p>And that could have implications even beyond the Middle East. As <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/saudi-nuclear-deal-raises-stakes-for-iran-talks-1426117583">the Wall Street Journal reported on March 12</a>, South Korea has entered into a $2 billion nuclear cooperation agreement with Saudi Arabia, which <span>includes "a plan to study the feasibility of building two nuclear reactors ... in the Arab country over the next 20 years, according to Saudi state media." </span></p><p>Saudi Arabia's choice of partner shows just how the nuclear aspirations of Middle Eastern states could complicate American diplomacy around the world. Since 2010, South Korea and the US have been <a href="http://www.cfr.org/south-korea/breaking-stalemate-us-rok-nuclear-cooperation-negotiations/p33439">negotiating the terms of their nuclear cooperation</a>. Under a deal signed that year, the US provides various forms of civilian nuclear assistance in exchange for Seoul's promises that the country won't develop an indigenous uranium enrichment capability.</p><p><span>That agreement expires in March of 2016 and has been under strain in recent years. In the early 2000s, North Korea pulled out of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and began illegally enriching uranium. Some in South Korea have long wanted the country to develop its own enrichment capability, partly in order to punish North Korea for breaking its promise not to introduce enrichment to the Korean peninsula. </span></p><p><span>But the US and South Korea are close allies, and Seoul is a democratic country firmly in the <keyword id="6356001" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="international">international</keyword> mainstream. South Korea isn't going to just break its agreement with a major ally, and it hasn't had problems purchasing enriched uranium on the open market. </span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">The US prohibition on South Korean enrichment has held.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">Still, Middle Eastern regimes' emerging desire for nuclear technology could provide an opportunity for Seoul to establish itself as a global leader in nuclear energy. And Saudi Arabia is a logical partner.<span><br /></span></span></p><p>"Saudi Arabia has very big nuclear power ambitions," Mark Hibbs, an expert in nuclear policy at the Carnegie Foundation for International Peace explained to Business Insider by email, citing the Middle Eastern country's growing population and energy needs. "So they have made clear that in principle they want to build a dozen or so power reactors. They could succeed in this, but the questions are how fast and with whom do they partner. They don't have any nuclear power technology and few nuclear experts, so they are looking to set up as many cooperation relationships with nuclear vendor states as they can."<span></span><span></span></p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div></p><p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">Saudi Arabia is also in discussions with the US, France, and Japan, Hibbs says. He's optimistic that cooperation between South Korea and Saudi Arabia won't lead to the kind of technological proliferation that worries US policymakers.</span></p><p>"I would not count on Korea launching any initiative with Saudi Arabia concerning nuclear fuel cycle matters in particular given that the US does not want more countries in the Middle East to enrich uranium," Hibbs adds. <span></span></p><p>Hibbs also doesn't think that a nuclear agreement that allows Iran to enrich uranium will lead to any unpredictable changes in South Korea's behavior. "T<span>he United States wants to discourage all countries from embarking on uranium enrichment programs, including South Korea, but the Koreans know that enrichment in Iran began as a clandestine program which Washington was not able to roll back to zero in multilateral negotiations," he told Business Insider, adding that the Koreans have long understood that the US would leave Iran with enrichment capabilities under a final deal.</span></p><p><span>Still, Hibbs expects the US and South Korea to deal with their own outstanding enrichment issues in the final version of their bilateral nuclear cooperation agreement, which is being negotiated at the same time as the Iran deal. South Korea could also have its enrichment capabilities enabled through diplomacy with the US - at the same time that Iran's own program is recognized and Middle Eastern governments are seeking nuclear assistance from Seoul.</span></p><p>It's a potentially tricky balance of interests. Countries all around the world want to build up their nuclear capabilities and prestige. The US has successfully managed their ambitions so far. But even a successful nuclear deal with Iran could change the landscape in ways that might be hard to envision in today's world: As <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/saudi-nuclear-deal-raises-stakes-for-iran-talks-1426117583">the Journal notes</a>, experts and diplomats are seriously believe that a nuclear-armed Iran would convince Pakistan to sell the Saudis a nuclear weapon.<span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"> </span></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/iphone-headphones-tricks-2015-2">14 things you didn't know your iPhone headphones could do</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="o2OGM3czpWcydnvhjbkDBd6feXPuExiD" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

Here's one unintended but dangerous consequence of even a successful nuclear deal with Iran

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image"><p class="source"><span>Raheb Homavandi/Reuters</span></p><p class="caption">Iranian revolutionary guard corps chant slogans in support of Iran's nuclear programme during Friday prayers in Tehran May 26, 2006</p></div><p></p></div></div>The latest round of tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia is unsettling what little is left of the Middle East's regional order.</p><p>Saudi Arabia's <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/07/world/middleeast/saudis-applaud-a-tougher-line-against-tehran.html">execution of the country's most prominent Shi'ite cleric on January 2nd</a> triggered the apparently <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/05/world/middleeast/iran-emerging-from-sanctions-faces-more-isolation-after-embassy-attack.html">state-sanctioned burning of Saudi diplomatic facilities</a> in Tehran and Mershad, a breach of <keyword id="6356001" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="international">international</keyword> order that in turn resulted in Saudi Arabia cutting ties with their Persian Gulf neighbor.</p><p>Luckily, in the past Saudi Arabia and Iran have demonstrated at least a limited ability to keep their animosity in check.</p><p>The countries didn't go to war when an Iranian plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the US at an upscale Washington, DC restaurant <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/man-in-iran-backed-plot-to-kill-saudi-ambassador-gets-25-years/2013/05/30/0435e7a2-c952-11e2-8da7-d274bc611a47_story.html">was revealed in 2011</a>. It's unclear what if any long-term impact the latest series of incidents will have.</p><p>But they're likely to have one lasting effect, a political development that could tangibly shift hte terms of the Middle East's sectarian divide. </p><p>On January 4th, Sudan <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/04/bahrain-cuts-diplomatic-ties-with-iran-in-row-over-saudi-execution-of-shia-cleric">announced that it was also severing diplomatic ties</a> with Iran. This move denied Iran of its sole Sunni Arab ally, undercutting the Tehran regime's argument that Iran's Islamic revolution is capable of transcending sectarianism and uniting the world's Muslims.</p><p>More practically, the freeze in relations also closes off the Red Sea port of Port Sudan to Iranian warships and weapons shipments, takes away a staging area for Iran's regional arms pipeline, ends a partnership with a fellow revolutionary Islamist regime, and flummoxes whatever remained of Iran's efforts to win over potential supporters in the Sunni world.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image"><p class="source"><span>Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah/Reuters</span></p><p class="caption">Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (R) hugs Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir after talks focused on boosting political and economic ties between their countries, at the Khartoum international airport on September 26, 2011.</p></div><p></p></div></div> The relationship between Iran and Sudan stems from the National Islamic Front's elevating to power after the 1989 military coup in Khartoum, an event that marked the first instance of a revolutionary Islamist movement taking power in an Arab country.</p><p>Over the next decade, Sudan's government <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/oct/17/afghanistan.terrorism3">sheltered Osama bin Laden</a>, <a href="http://sudanreeves.org/2004/12/20/khartoums-central-role-in-the-assassination-attempt-on-egyptian-president-hosni-mubarak-october-3-2001/">attempted to assassinate</a> the anti-Muslim Brotherhood Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak, and <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/unbound/langew/turabi.htm">tried to impose Islamic law</a> throughout what was then the territorial ly largest country in the African continent.</p><p>Even if these measures turned Sudan into an internationally sanctioned rogue state, they created an opportunity for a partnership with a fellow revolutionary regime in Tehran, which had been the world's only revolutionary Islamist government between 1979 and 1989.</p><p>The relationship paid off: Iran provided Sudan with weaponry and expertise that allowed the country to set up a fairly extensive domestic arms industry, giving it the capability of building its own automatic weapons, rocket launchers, and even tanks.</p><p>The Sudanese regime lost many of it its Islamist trappings. The Islamic Movement changed its name to the National Congress Party (NCP) in the late 1990s and began evolving into a somewhat more conventional dictatorship in hopes of improving the country's economy and relations with the west. </p><p>But Sudan maintained close ties with Iran. International isolation over the government's conduct in wars in Darfur and South Sudan gave Sudan the added incentive to <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/heres-where-the-worlds-rogue-regimes-sent-weapons-in-2014-2015-4">deepen ties with a fellow sanctioned regime</a>. Iran and Sudan <a href="http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article26294">completed a military cooperation agreement in 2008</a>, while the Sudanese military has <a href="https://medium.com/war-is-boring/sudans-drones-are-dropping-like-flies-ffa1be165291#.756c07rqc">deployed Iranian-built drones in both Darfur and the south of the country</a>. The two governments were allies through 2014.</p><p>That began to change as the NCP began to faced steep financial crisis - and as Saudi Arabia began mobilizing the Sunni Arab states against Tehran.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><p class="source"><span>Reuters</span></p><p class="caption">Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir (L) meets Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during his arrival at Khartoum Airport September 25, 2011.</p></div><p></p></div></div>The NCP, which is still under international sanctions related to the Sudanese government's human rights abuses in Darfur, had faced a prolonged economic drought after the southern third of the country <a href="http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/02/25/unmade-in-the-usa-south-sudan-bush-obama/">became the independent state of South Sudan in 2011</a>. Khartoum and South Sudan failed to reach a durable compromise over the post-independence split of South Sudanese oil revenues (the oil's export is dependent on an oil transit infrastructure in the north of Sudan). Oil from the south had previously constituted nearly the entirety of Sudanese government revenue. </p><p>At the same time, the Middle East ignited. The escalating conflict in Syria sharpened the region's sectarian divisions, and events like the Yemeni civil war and the thaw in Iran-US relations heightened the competition between Riyadh and Tehran.</p><p>These tensions raised made a potentially swing state like Sudan even more important.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><p class="source"><span>Reuters</span></p><p class="caption">Flames rise from Saudi Arabia's embassy during a demonstration in Tehran on January 2, 2016.</p></div><p></p></div></div>As Alberto Fernandez, current Vice President at the Middle East Media Research Institute and the Charge d'Affaires at the US embassy in Khartoum from 2007 to 2009 explained to Business Insider, amid both domestic and regional turmoil the increasingly pragmatic regime in Khartoum began to realize that its survival depended more on Saudi largess than on its relationship with Iran.</p><p> "These<span> guys have been in power now for 26 years," Fernandez says of the NCP. "They're no longer the revolutionaries that they were. They're now a regime that wants to hold onto power. And in that sense they were fruit ripe for the plucking by the Saudis."</span></p><p>The thaw culminated in Sudan's March 2015 decision to <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-war-in-yemen-has-already-shifted-the-tide-in-the-middle-east-2015-3">join the Saudi-led anti-Houthi rebel coalition in Yemen</a>, which is fighting to restore Yemen's internationally recognized government after an Iranian-supported Shi'ite militant movement deposed it in early 2015.</p><p>By that point, the NCP had determined that the Saudis had the unrivaled resources and willingness to secure the regime's long-term survival. "The Saudis can still outbid the Iranians," says Fernandez. "The Iranians have technical expertise and other things they can offer, but they're not swimming in cold hard cash the way the Saudis are." <div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://lecourrierdumaghrebetdelorient.info/arab-world-maps/arab-world-maps-a-proxy-war-in-the-middle-east/#prettyPhoto">Emmanuel Pene/Agathocle de Syracuse/The Maghreb and Orient Courier</a></span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>The move has strategic implications for Iran. Sudan's partnership was more than just a symbolic victory for Iran, 0r a sign that the the Islamic Republic's state ideology was capable of resonating with Sunni Arab Islamists too. It also gave Iran a strategic way-point for weapons trafficking into both the Gaza Strip and Central and East Africa. </p><p>Sudan was a frequent staging area for Iranian weapons shipments heading north, to Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Gaza. Sudan gave the Iranian arms industry, and the Iranian regime, access to regions of strategic and possibly commercial concern. Suspected Israeli attacks targeted Hamas weapons shipments or facilities in Sudan in <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/air-strike-on-car-in-port-sudan-kills-two-1.354308">2009, 2011</a>, and <a href="http://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-said-to-bomb-sudan-weapon-warehouse/">2014</a>. And as a <a href="http://www.conflictarm.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Iranian_Ammunition_Distribution_in_Africa.pdf">2012 study</a> by Conflict Armaments Research detailed, Iranian munitions have been found throughout Africa, in places spanning from South Sudan to Cote D'Ivoire. </p><p>Iran also helped seed a Sudanese domestic weapons industry purported to be the third-largest in Africa, behind only Egypt and South Africa. According to a 2014 Small Arms Survey report, Iran <a href="http://www.smallarmssurveysudan.org/fileadmin/docs/facts-figures/sudan/HSBA-MIC-Open-Source-Review-2014.pdf">owns a 35% stake in the Yarmouk industrial facility in Khartoum</a>, which is believed to produce artillery, rocket launchers, and military-grade firearms.</p><p>Iran's Yamrouk investment hasn't been cost-free for the Sudanese regime: in October of 2012, the Israeli air force <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/10/what-are-the-odds-that-israel-just-attacked-sudan/264082/">attacked the site</a>, likely in order to destroy Iranian-supplied long-range rockets bound for Hamas in the Gaza Strip.  Yarmouk was also <a href="https://search.wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/06STATE203861_a.html">cited in a 2006 US diplomatic cable</a> published by WikiLeaks for its alleged connection to activities "<span>that have the potential to contribute materially to WMD, missile, or certain other weapons programs in Iran or Syria."</span></p><p>As the Small Arms Survey recounts, Sudanese weapons factories <a href="http://www.smallarmssurveysudan.org/fileadmin/docs/facts-figures/sudan/HSBA-MIC-Open-Source-Review-2014.pdf">produce a range of armaments</a>, including light weaponry and small rocket launchers of Iranian design. Sudan has flown military drones of Iranian origin, and Patrick Megahan, a research associate for military affairs at the Foundation for <keyword id="6354810" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Defense">Defense</keyword> of Democracies, noted in an email to Business Insider that Sudan's state weapons enterprises had exhibited "a copy of an Iranian remote weapons station" at <a href="http://www.janes.com/article/49341/idex-2015-sudan-boosts-presence-second-time-around">an international defense exhibition in Abu Dhabi in early 2015</a>.</p><p>Emile Lebrun, the editor of the Small Arms Survey's <a href="http://www.smallarmssurveysudan.org/">Human Security Baseline Assessment for Sudan and South Sudan</a>, speculates that Iranian assistance "was already very limited before the Yemen campaign was underway."</p><p>But it's still "unclear," he wrote to Business Insider in an email, "<span>whether the Iranian technicians working in the Sudanese arms factories (some hundreds of workers, according to reports) can be replaced with local specialists."</span></p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><p class="source"><span>AP</span></p><p class="caption">In this Friday, Jan. 23, 2015, file photo released by the Saudi Press Agency, King Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud makes his first speech as king following the death of King Abdullah.</p></div><p></p></div></div>Sudan's value as a strategic asset to Iran, and Iran's role in helping Sudan establish a domestic arms production capability, suggest that the relationship between the two countries may continue in some more muted, sub-official form. There might be some enduring (if informal) cooperation between officials from the two countries regarding weapons trafficking or continued Iranian involvement in the arms sector.</p><p>"My sense is that we're going to see Sudan inch away from Iran but Iran will maintain lingering assets in the country whether Sudan likes it or not," says Jonathan Schanzer, vice president of research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.</p><p>But on the geopolitical level, Saudi Arabia was able to ply away Iran's only Sunni Arab ally - a country that enjoyed longstanding military and strategic ties with Tehran. </p><p>"It<span> looks like the Saudis have outmaneuvered the Iranians," Schanzer told Business Insider. "They pulled a proxy out from under Iran's wing."</span> </p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/biggest-risks-2016-eurasia-group-saudi-arabi-isis-china-us-europe-2016-1">These are the biggest risks facing the world in 2016</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="1yZmd4eTokdaUX-SbXaNg-rdWXygmYaa" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

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