Story highlights Yemen's pro-Saudi government has crumbled amid sectarian unrest Saudi Arabia also faces difficulties in its cold war with Iran and the fight against ISIS
To the south, Yemen is in chaos. To the north, the militant group ISIS is wreaking havoc in Iraq and Syria. More broadly, Saudi Arabia remains locked in a regional cold war with Iran.
Within the kingdom's borders, Salman has to decide how to pace sensitive reforms while keeping a lid on extremism.
The stakes are high in one of the leading regional powers in the Middle East and a key U.S. ally.
"Saudi Arabia has been critical to preserving some degree of regional stability in the face of a growing Iranian threat, during the rise of Islamic extremism that followed the U.S. invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, and during the new wave of upheavals that began in the spring of 2011," Anthony H. Cordesman, a Middle East expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, wrote in a commentary this month.
Here are some of the main challenges Salman now faces:
The new king has been plunged straight into the deep end with a fast-developing crisis on Saudi Arabia's southern border.
The pro-Saudi government in Yemen has crumbled amid sectarian unrest. The country's president and prime minister resigned Thursday night after a move by Shiite Houthi rebels to gain power in the capital in recent days.
Sunni majority Saudi Arabia, which provides energy and financial support to Yemen and shares a long border with it, is looking on with growing anxiety, fearful of the prospect of another Shiite-dominated state in the region.
"This will terrify the Saudis, just as the Shia uprising in Bahrain did," said CNN intelligence and security analyst Bob Baer.
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New Saudi King's big challenges: Yemen, Iran and ISIS ...