Apr 30, 2014

Saudi Arabia staged its largest-ever military exercise this week to demonstrate its capability to defend itself against its northern Shiite neighbors. The guest list for the event was the most potent symbol of Saudi power, bringing together its Gulf allies with Pakistan and its nuclear shield.

According to the Saudi media, the exercise, code-named Abdullah’s Shield, involved 130,000 Saudi troops. The maneuvers were held in the kingdom’s Eastern province at King Khaled Military City, in Hafr al-Batin, facing Iran and Iraq, and were timed to coincide with the ninth anniversary of King Abdullah’s ascension to the throne.

The highlight of the exercise was a military parade for the assembled guests during which the Saudis publicly displayed for the first time their Chinese CSS-2 intermediate-range ballistic missiles. Secretly purchased in 1987 during the Iran-Iraq War, the aging missiles have a range of 2,650 kilometers (1,646 miles). In China, they are equipped with nuclear warheads. The missile deal was arranged by Prince Bandar bin Sultan, then Saudi ambassador to the United States, and caused an uproar in US-Saudi relations after US intelligence found them being deployed in hardened missile silos in the Saudi desert. Bandar assured Washington they did not have nuclear payloads.

Crown Prince and Defense Minister Salman bin Abdulaziz presided over the exercise and the parade. Prince Mutaib, King Abdullah's son and National Guard minister, and Interior Minister Prince Muhammad bin Nayef joined Salman. Foreign guests included King Hamid of Bahrain and the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, Muhammad bin Zayed, as well as senior officials from Kuwait and Oman. Only Qatar was missing from the stage, a sign the Saudi-Qatari rift is not over.

The pre-eminent guest was Gen. Raheel Sharif, the Pakistani chief of army Staff. Sharif is the most important military commander in Pakistan and the man who controls the fastest-growing nuclear arsenal in the world. The Saudis and Pakistanis are well-aware that rumors, which the two helped stoke, have circulated for decades that Pakistan has committed to providing nuclear warheads for the CSS-2 missiles. The Pakistani press highlighted that Salman had personally invited Sharif to the kingdom when the crown prince visited Pakistan earlier in the year. On television, Sharif was shown sitting next to Prince Mutaib, a sign of royal favor.