Qatif-Trucial War

The 1971 Qatifi Crisis was a period of political instability, upheaval and conflict in Qatif. The crisis's roots can be traced back to the 1961 coup in which military general Mustafa al-Karim overthrew the Sultan of Qatif Al-Qa'im ibn al-Aziz ibn Mohammed al-Tahir during the Qatifi civil war, and subsequently established an. al-Karim's policy on land reform, secularisation and nationalisation of several business angered previous supporters of the royalist regime as well as former western aligned Qatifi allies such as the. Following the which left the al-Karim government politically weak a group of royalist formed the covert underground group known as the Resurgence Movement, which aimed to bring the Sultan back into power and the dismantlement of the socialist regime. In 1970 following the election of as  the Resurgence Movement was able to secure US backing for a coup against al-Karim.

The coup took place in March 1971 where al-Karim was attending a state visit to. The Resurgence Movement with military support from the US, UK and took control of the capital Al-Khatt causing many members of the socialist regime to flee to the second largest city in Qatif, Al-Tuwaiq. al-Karim returned to Qatif with military backing from Libya, and as well as receive support from, ,  and. This enabled the socialist government along with the loyalist members of the armed forces to wage a brutal war against royalist forces over the country. In June al-Karim secured aid from the, causing the US to increase aid to the royalist government which was ruled soley by a reinstated Sultan Al-Qa'im al-Tahir. However, in September the royalist government began to collapse as many of its military forces defected to the socialists as well as popular discontent encouraging action to be taken against the royalist regime. The US withdrew support in early November after Al-Khatt was taken by socialist forces. The crisis officially ended with the capture of Abdul in late November and the return to socialist rule. Following this return al-Karim had many of the royalist leaders executed as well as put the Sultan under house arrest for the rest of his life. A subsequent purge saw any potential dissidents killed, imprisoned or tortured, with the socialist government beginning to receive a large amount of financial backing from the Soviet Union.

The 1971 Qatifi crisis also saw the previously unpopular socialist government invest more into building infrastructure and social programs as well as cut back of austerity measures and lessen some of the more extreme secular practices. The crisis has remained controversial in Qatifi history, with the brutal treatment of the rebel forces especially having been debated as a necessary precaution or a hyperbolic scare tactic. After the crisis Qatif was left economically weak and dependent on its Arab neighbours as well as the Soviet Union, with major economic growth in Qatif only really taking place ten years later. The role of foreign powers including alleged and  involvement has also sparked controversy.

Background
Until 1917 Qatif had been a vassal state of the, and was unique in the fact that the majority of its inhabitants practiced. The Qatifi Sultanate was entirely dependent on Ottoman protection to survive as it was relatively with many inhabitants keeping to traditional nomadic ways of life. During the as it became clear that the Allied forces would secure a victory Sultan Al-Aziz ibn Mohammed al-Tahir pledged allegiance to British forces, with Qatif becoming a protectorate of Britain after the war. The British encouraged the Sultanate to modernise after oil was discovered on the eastern coast, although the Sultans conservative leadership prevented this.

In 1947 Sultan Al-Qa'im ibn al-Aziz ibn Mohammed al-Tahir came to power. Widely seen as a moderniser in the vain of of Iran, Al-Qa'im implemented greater industrialisation into Qatif whilst still retaining the same land rights that had existed under the feudal government. More conservative critics opposed his reforms seeing them as too liberal and western, whilst others stated that progress was still slow and that greater measures could be taken place to modernise Qatif. Worst of all Al-Qa'im begun to face increased resistance from within the minority population of Qatif who demanded that they not only be granted more rights but that modernisation should halt due to its negative effect on their predominantly rural lifestyles. In 1948 the Qatifi regional branch of the was formed by military officer Mustafa al-Karim that sought to incorporate Qatif into a much larger  state, and quickly gained support among some of the urban community in Qatif. However, Al-Qa'im failed to improve Shiite-Sunni relations in Qatif, and in 1952 an insurgency in the south erupted throwing the country into a state of civil war.