While Saudi leaders have managed to buy middle-class support by allocating a significant proportion of oil revenues to targeted welfare and credit-support programs, widespread poverty and massive income inequality persist. Shia Muslims in the oil-rich Eastern Province have repeatedly defied the ban on anti-regime demonstrations.
沙特领导人仍能够通过吧大量石油收入用于定向福利和信用支持项目来收买中产阶级的支持，但广泛的贫困和严重的不平等性一直存在。据说富于石油的东方省的什叶派穆斯林奋起反抗反政权示威禁令。沙特阿拉伯针对也门什叶派胡塞叛军（Houthis）的行动也比预料的耗时更长、花费更巨。