Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, is a country in West Asia that occupies most of the Arabian Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Riyadh, and Jeddah, Mecca and Medina are other major centres.

The country covers about 2,149,690 square kilometres and had a population of 35,325,004 at its 2026 census, according to Wikipedia. It is an absolute monarchy under the House of Saud: King Salman is head of state, and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has been prime minister since 2022. The kingdom was proclaimed on 23 September 1932 under King Abdulaziz, oil was discovered in 1938, and it co-founded OPEC in 1960. It is the world’s second-largest oil producer and the only Arab member of the G20.

Saudi Arabia features in recent news in two ways. On 9 November 2026, India and Saudi Arabia signed the Haj 2027 agreement in Jeddah, fixing India’s quota at 1,75,025 pilgrims, according to ETV Bharat citing PTI. On 7 November 2026, a Houthi health ministry spokesman blamed Saudi Arabia for an airstrike near Sanaa in Yemen that he said killed at least 25 people. The Associated Press could not verify the claim, and Saudi Arabia’s Information Ministry did not immediately respond.

Sources: Wikipedia, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Nation in Shorts on the Haj 2027 agreement, Nation in Shorts on the Sanaa airstrike