Al Qaeda chief Ayman Al Zawahri last Thursday urged Saudis to rise up against the kingdom’s ruling Al Saud family.

“Muslim brothers in the land of the holy mosques, a year has passed since the uprising of the Arab people against their rulers…my dear brothers why do you still accept to be ruled by the Al Saud family,” Zawahiri said in a video posted on an Islamist website.

Saudi Arabia has confronted its own Arab Spring with a combination of carrot and stick – occasional live fire to decisively end demonstrations and a big public spending package.

In November four people were killed, according to the Interior Ministry and activists. Riyadh asserts – like its Gulf Arab allies – that Shiite Persian Iran is stirring up unrest in a bid to destabalize the monarchy.

According to activists, security forces have arrested and released around 500 people over the prostests, of whom 80 are still incarcerated.

Al Qaeda has been behind a virilent Islamist terror campaign in neighborning Yemen. US military and intelligence officials have used Saudi Arabia as a staging ground for an expanding drone strike campaign targeting the terror group there.