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Saudi Arabia has widened a security buffer zone along its northern border with Iraq to ward off potential threats to the worlds largest oil supplier.

The restricted area was doubled to 20 kilometers (12 miles), the kingdoms Border Guard spokesman Muhammad al-Ghamdi said today in a phone interview, without identifying the risks. This will help the guards perform their mission.

Saudi Arabia, which has joined the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State, has deployed forces and boosted patrols along its 800-kilometer northern frontier since June after the militants seized large swaths of territory in Iraq and Syria. Saudi forces want to prevent the conflict in Iraq, where Iranian-backed Shiite militias and as well as the jihadists pose a threat, from spilling into the kingdom.

The expansion of the northern security zone aims to prevent infiltration into the kingdom from the conflicts in Iraq and Syria, Theodore Karasik, a senior adviser with Risk Insurance Management in Dubai, said in response to e-mailed questions. They also want to mitigate any instability in the north of the country, where some individuals may support radical militant groups.

Prince Miteb, minister of the National Guard and a son of King Abdullah, met with President Barack Obama in Washington today, and Obama thanked Saudi Arabia for its role in fighting Islamic State, according to a White House statement.

Saudi and British paratroopers are also conducting joint exercises in Tabuk in the kingdoms northwest, the official Saudi Press Agency said, citing Saudi commander Lieutenant Colonel Mohammed al-Harbi.

Authorities in Riyadh have developed close military and intelligence ties with the U.S. and the U.K. as they combat al-Qaeda and threats to stability in the Persian Gulf. Saudi Arabia signed a $3 billion aircraft training pact with the U.K. in 2012. The previous year, the Obama administration signed a $29.4 billion agreement with Saudi Arabia to sell Boeing Co. F-15 fighters to the Gulf ally.

A breakdown of Saudi security would mean gains for extremist elements in the Middle East, said Paul Pillar, a former U.S. intelligence officer for the Near East and South Asia at the Central Intelligence Agency. The U.S. and U.K. have an interest in maintaining a good overall security relationship with Saudi Arabia in the hope that this will underlie greater Saudi cooperation with the West on other matters such as the war in Syria.

The U.S. and its Western allies have provided security for the Persian Gulf oil fields, which hold three-fifths of the worlds crude. Now, the U.S. wants Saudi Arabia to play a greater defense role in the region, according to James Dorsey, a senior fellow in international studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore

The U.S. would like to see the Saudis emerge as a primary military force that can do some of the heavy lifting, Dorsey said.

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Saudi Arabia Widens Secure Zone on Iraq Border as Threats Mount