Regional upheavals test relative Saudi stability - FT.com

On the fringes of Deera Square, dubbed “Chop-Chop Square” by foreigners for the public beheadings carried out there, Ali Mohammed explained how oil-rich Saudi Arabia had spent heavily to avoid the popular uprisings that have toppled other Arab regimes.

“In these other countries, the government keeps all the money,” said Mr Mohammed, a civil servant paid a more than liveable SR16,000 ($4,300) a month. “Here, it is half and half.”

Any talk of revolution in Riyadh has proved exaggerated. But the Arab uprisings have focused attention on the contrast between the Saudi monarchy’s increasing financial largesse and its reluctance to allow more than minimal political change.

* username: rupertbu