[Lillie_Steins]

They are a Nuclear armed state. They are also marginally aligned with the Chinese, and can escalate (to their advantage) not only on the Afghani frontier but also: 1. Kashmir, 2. Some of Central Asia and 3. Iran. Some of this can be rather devastating in terms of chocking oil and or causing other major recessionary waves in the West once executed. They have cards they can play and the Sauds, for one, will make sure they will all ways have those cards.