Iran’s Lifted Sanctions Hit Saudi Arabia Right Where It Hurts

Iran’s emergence from a decade of punitive international sanctions could not come at a more precarious time for Saudi Arabia.

Faced with plummeting global oil prices, the Saudis are in the midst of a deepening fiscal crisis at home. Those domestic woes will likely be prolonged or exacerbated now that the kingdom’s regional rival is able to flood the global oil market with its own ample supply of crude.

Tehran marked the end to its economic isolation on Monday by announcing it would immediately boost oil production by 500,000 barrels a day. That news alone sent international oil prices plunging to below $28 a barrel, their lowest point since 2003. Over the last 18 months crude prices have tumbled nearly 75 percent from a high of $115.

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Now Iran’s oil boost gives the Saudis just one more thing to fear, said David Weinberg, a Middle East scholar and senior fellow with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

“The Saudis believe they have found themselves in an unprecedented crisis environment,” Weinberg told Vocativ. “They feel like they are facing unprecedented challenges all at once.”

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