The small island nation of Bahrain is caught in a big squeeze. Middle Eastern rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia both feel a degree of connection and influence over its people and territory, and some of its wealthy neighbors — Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait — often instruct the ruling al-Khalifa family on how to conduct the country's domestic and foreign policies. The rulers, who are Sunni, oversee a Shiite Arab majority population and an economy with more foreign workers than citizens. Those rulers also have a habit of needing help managing the country, and they are again in need of economic aid. An Economy in Trouble Bahrain has about 1.5 million people living on 771 square kilometers (297 square miles) of islands off the coast of Saudi Arabia in the Persian Gulf.