Saudi Arabia’s continued battle to quell suspected Al-Qaeda militants and a spate of violent clashes between Shi’ites and police in Bahrain saw both Gulf states drop in the 2008 Global Peace Index.
Bahrain slipped to 74th position out of 140 countries included in the index, while Saudi Arabia fell 18 places to 108th.
The index, drawn up by the Institute for Economics and Peace, uses a range of factors including the likelihood of violent demonstrations and political instability to rank nations.
Bahrain has witnessed several violent protests between Sunni-led authorities and minority Shi’ites since the beginning of the year, with rioters engaged in bloody street battles with police in December and January, which resulted in the death of one protester, and again in March.
Meanwhile, police in Saudi Arabia have made several arrests of militants trying to smuggle weapons into the kingdom over the last 12 months, with authorities claiming terrorist groups were planning attacks on prominent landmarks.
Elsewhere in the Gulf Oman and Qatar both fell one position on the list, while the UAE dropped two places and Kuwait gained three.
Oman was considered as the most peaceful GCC country, ranked 25th, while Saudi Arabia remained the least peaceful. Qatar, the UAE and Kuwait came in at 33rd, 42nd and 45th respectively.
Iraq, once again, was the lowest ranked country on the index, while newcomer, Iceland, topped the table as the most peaceful.
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