Tayyar.

Country · SA

SA flag

Saudi Arabia

المملكة العربية السعودية ערב הסעודית

0 parties on file

This country appears on the regional map; its parties are not part of the current dataset.

Capital
Riyadh
Population
36.4M
Independence
1932
Government
Absolute monarchy
Head of state
King
Head of government
Prime Minister (Crown Prince)
Electoral system
Absolute monarchy (no political parties; partly-elected Shura Council)

Saudi state founded 1932 (third Saudi state). House of Saud rule; bin Salman line consolidated under MBS since 2017. Vision 2030 economic transformation; 2023 Iran rapprochement; ongoing Yemen war.

Timeline · 6 events

Region timeline →
2025
  • Reported Other September 2025

    Saudi-Iran rapprochement deepens after the 12-day war

    The 2023 China-brokered Saudi-Iran restoration of relations survived the June 2025 war intact. By September 2025, both governments had elevated cooperation: Saudi Arabia notably did not allow US use of its airspace for the June strikes, and the two sides held expanded meetings on Yemen, the Red Sea, and post-Assad Syria. The development complicated US assumptions about Saudi alignment.

2023
  • Confirmed Other March 10, 2023

    Iran-Saudi diplomatic restoration

    China brokered a Saudi-Iranian agreement on 2023-03-10 to restore diplomatic relations after seven years of rupture. Both states reopened embassies. Significantly reduced the direct Saudi-Iranian proxy tension; the indirect proxy conflicts (Yemen, Lebanon, Syria) continued.

Show 4 earlier events (2016–2022)
2022
  • Confirmed Leader changed September 27, 2022

    Saudi Arabia: Mohammed bin Salman appointed Prime Minister

    King Salman appointed his son Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to the prime ministership — a post the monarch has historically held in concurrent capacity. The move codified what was already true: MBS runs the country. It also offered him head-of-government legal immunity in the US courts then weighing the Khashoggi case, and the Biden administration accepted the immunity claim that November.

2017
  • Confirmed Other November 4, 2017

    Ritz-Carlton anti-corruption purge

    Saudi Crown Prince MBS detained over 200 senior Saudi princes, businessmen, and officials at Riyadh's Ritz-Carlton hotel on 2017-11-04 under the banner of an anti-corruption campaign. Many were released only after transferring assets to the state, estimated at around $100 billion. Consolidated MBS's control over Saudi institutions.

  • Confirmed Leader changed June 21, 2017

    MBS named Crown Prince

    King Salman elevated his son Mohammed bin Salman from deputy to Crown Prince on 2017-06-21, displacing his nephew Mohammed bin Nayef. MBS's subsequent Ritz-Carlton anti-corruption purge (Nov 2017) consolidated his power; he has been de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia since.

2016
  • Confirmed Other April 25, 2016

    Saudi Vision 2030 launched

    Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman announced Vision 2030 on 2016-04-25 — a sweeping economic and social transformation plan aimed at reducing Saudi dependence on oil. The framework has driven entertainment liberalization, women's driving rights (2018), megaprojects like NEOM, and broader regional foreign policy realignment.

Marquee bills

All bills →

Current leadership · grouped by party

10 political figures across 1 groups. Coalition parties first, then opposition, then unaffiliated.

Independents / unaffiliated 10 figures

Parties

No parties recorded yet.

Source documents · 9

All docs →

How to cite

Each record carries a retrieval date because the dataset is live — individual entries update as verification deepens. Use the per-record citation when referencing this specific profile; use the dataset citation below when referencing the project as a whole.

In-text: (Gara, 2026)

Per-record citation

APA 7Reference list · academic default 
Gara, T. (2026). Saudi Arabia [Country profile]. Tayyar: A MENA political-position dataset. Retrieved June 21, 2026, from https://tarekgara.com/tayyar/c/SA
Chicago author-dateCommon in political-science journals 
Gara, Tarek. 2026. "Saudi Arabia." Country profile, Tayyar: A MENA political-position dataset. Accessed June 21, 2026. https://tarekgara.com/tayyar/c/SA.
BibTeXFor LaTeX / Zotero / reference managers 
@misc{tayyar-country-sa,
  title     = {{Saudi Arabia}},
  author    = {Gara, Tarek},
  year      = {2026},
  publisher = {Tayyar: A MENA political-position dataset},
  type      = {Country profile},
  url       = {https://tarekgara.com/tayyar/c/SA},
  urldate   = {2026-06-21},
  note      = {First-pass entry; second-pass external review planned before publication.}
}

Dataset / working-paper citation

If you're citing Tayyar as a project rather than this individual record.

APA 7Preprint 
Gara, T. (2026). Tayyar: A MENA political-position dataset [Preprint]. Retrieved June 21, 2026, from https://tarekgara.com/tayyar/paper
BibTeXPreprint 
@unpublished{tayyar-preprint,
  title  = {{Tayyar: A MENA political-position dataset}},
  author = {Gara, Tarek},
  year   = {2026},
  type   = {Preprint},
  url    = {https://tarekgara.com/tayyar/paper},
  urldate = {2026-06-21},
  note   = {Living document, regenerated from the live dataset on page load.}
}

First-pass entry; second-pass external review planned before publication.