Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia is the Gulf's largest oil producer and the anchor state of the OPEC+ alliance that sets global output policy alongside Russia. The kingdom also leads the Saudi-led military Coalition that fought Yemen's Houthi movement for over a decade, a relationship now colliding directly with the wider Iran conflict as Houthi forces turn their weapons on Saudi shipping and infrastructure.

Riyadh built the East-West Petroline specifically to reduce its exposure to the Strait of Hormuz, restoring the pipeline to full capacity so Eastern Province crude can reach Yanbu on the Red Sea without transiting the strait, a route none of its Gulf neighbours can match. That infrastructure advantage sits alongside a harder constraint: Saudi air defences have been reported as stretched, with Riyadh on a standard interceptor waiting list while some Gulf neighbours secured emergency waivers, leaving the kingdom's own territory less protected than the shipping lanes it has worked so hard to reroute.

Saudi Arabia was the first Gulf state to invoke UN Charter Article 51 self-defence in the wider Iran conflict, a doctrine it has since extended from responding to attacks on its own territory to striking launch sites on neighbouring soil. The event record includes and .