May 20: Arabia: Treaty between United Kingdom and the Kingdom of Nejd and Hejaz signed.
The treaty recognizes the independence of the realm of Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud, (a.k.a. Abdul Aziz Al–Saud) and his sovereignty over it. By proclamation five years later (in 1932), the area was to be known as “Saudi Arabia.”
At age 22, starting in 1902, twenty–five years before the treaty with the British, Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud was on the march. After re–capturing Riyadh, the Al–Saud dynasty’s ancestral capital, Ibn Saud continued his campaign onward.
Further conquests—and ententes—by Ibn Saud post–the Treaty of Jeddah, netted him 80% of the Arabian Peninsula by 1927–1932.
Vast oil reserves were discovered only later in 1938. These would provide Saudi Arabia with very significant leverage in the Middle East and beyond, particularly when combined with Saudi stewardship of Islam’s two holiest sites (those in Mecca and Medina), and combined, as well, with fine–tuned armed forces.
Thus, Saudi Arabia became a political amalgam of an oil power plus financial reservoir plus spiritual Mecca plus military power all under the stewardship of one astute family.
The founder of modern Saudi Arabia was succeeded upon his death by his eldest (surviving) son, King Saud in 1953. (Saud would father 53 sons and 56 daughters.)
King Saud, whose reign was marked by setbacks and issues, was deposed by a younger brother Faisal in 1964. Faisal, the third oldest son, was one of approximately 36 brothers of Saud, who left for exile In Greece after losing the power struggle.
Eleven years later, King Faisal assassinated by his nephew in 1975.
Faisal, in turn, was succeeded by King Khalid (same year in 1975).
Then, Khalid was succeeded in 1982 by King Fahd, the third son of Ibn Saud to become king.
[A 2000 Treaty of Jeddah (same name as this 1927 entry) resolved a Saudi–Yemen border dispute.]
In January 2008, King Abdullah reigns, having succeeded his half–brother King Fahd (who died in 2005).
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With Iran, Saudi Arabia’s neighbor to the north across the Persian Gulf, newly emboldened by America’s neutering of Iran’s arch–rival and counter–weight Iraq, and with nuclear weaponry apparently within Iran’s grasp by 2011–2014, the politico–military equilibrium of the region is destabilized.
Iran not only looms over Persian Gulf shipping lanes, and not only looms over the territories of Saudi Arabia’s oil–rich allies around the Gulf, but Iran has de facto started to lay claim to regional hegemony, a denouement anathema to the Saudis.
Spring 2008: The astute Abdullah holds political trump cards over the Middle East peace process. And knows it.
Fortunately for all–concerned, his wisdom is not inconsiderable.