Saudi Arabia has been in continuous decline in all economic, political, and social fields due to its Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's (MBS) failed policies.
The 17th edition of the annual Global Peace Index (GPI), the world's leading measure of peacefulness, reveals that the average level of country peacefulness deteriorated by 0.42 percent.
The GPI covers 163 countries, including the MENA region.
The GPI measures the state of peace across three domains: the level of societal safety and security; the extent of ongoing domestic and international conflict; and the degree of militarization.
Iceland remains the most peaceful country, a position it has held since 2008, followed by Denmark, Ireland, New Zealand, and Austria.
For the sixth consecutive year, Afghanistan is the least peaceful country, followed by Yemen, Syria, South Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Saudi Arabia ranked 119th.
The MENA countries rank as follows:
Qatar (21), Kuwait (35), Oman (48), Jordan (62), UAE (75), Tunisia (81), Morocco (84), Algeria (96), Bahrain (108), Djibouti (112), Mauritania (114), Saudi Arabia (119), Egypt (121), Palestine (134), Lebanon (135), Libya (137), Iraq (154), Sudan (155), Somalia (156), Syria (161), and Yemen (162).
Political sources said that Saudi Arabia's GPI decline came due to MBS' insecure policies, his tight grip on power, and his spying policies on his own citizens.
Western intelligence sources revealed that the Saudi authorities are intensifying their cybersecurity measures by buying new offensive hacking technologies.
The power struggle within the ruling family is also a major reason for the decline, especially after MBS launched a large-scale arrest campaign against dozens of princes and prominent businessmen on the pretext of fighting corruption.
The decline in the GPI also came following a wave of unprecedented human rights violations in the Kingdom, including the arrest of female activists, scholars, preachers, university professors, and academics, and dozens of unfair trials followed by death sentences. Prominent journalist Jamal Khashoggi's killing inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul was at the top of these violations.
The Yemen war had repercussions on the decline of the Kingdom’s ranking, after the Saudi air forces bombed dozens of Yemeni cities and villages, demolishing residential buildings and schools, destroying industrial and commercial facilities, and killing thousands of victims.
