Transnational Issues Sao Tome and Principe
Disputes - international: none
This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006
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@Saudi Arabia
Introduction Saudi Arabia
Background:
In 1902, ABD AL-AZIZ bin Abd al-Rahman Al Saud captured Riyadh and
set out on a 30-year campaign to unify the Arabian Peninsula. A son
of ABD AL-AZIZ rules the country today, and the country's Basic Law
stipulates that the throne shall remain in the hands of the aging
sons and grandsons of the kingdom's founder. Following Iraq's
invasion of Kuwait in 1990, Saudi Arabia accepted the Kuwaiti royal
family and 400,000 refugees while allowing Western and Arab troops
to deploy on its soil for the liberation of Kuwait the following
year. The continuing presence of foreign troops on Saudi soil after
Operation Desert Storm remained a source of tension between the
royal family and the public until the US military's near-complete
withdrawal to neighboring Qatar in 2003. The first major terrorist
attacks in Saudi Arabia in several years, which occurred in May and
November 2003, prompted renewed efforts on the part of the Saudi
government to counter domestic terrorism and extremism, which also
coincided with a slight upsurge in media freedom and announcement of
government plans to phase in partial political representation. As
part of this effort, the government permitted elections - held
nationwide from February through April 2005 - for half the members
of 179 municipal councils. A burgeoning population, aquifer
depletion, and an economy largely dependent on petroleum output and
prices are all ongoing governmental concerns.
Geography Saudi Arabia
Location:
Middle East, bordering the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea, north of
Yemen
Geographic coordinates:
25 00 N, 45 00 E