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| International |
| Saudis in secret moves for new king |
| 2002-08-11 |
| Members of the inner circle of King Fahd of Saudi Arabia have held a series of secret meetings in Geneva to discuss the succession amid fears that the ailing king's health is fast deteriorating. The 79-year-old king, who has suffered from Alzheimer's disease for several years, has been in his palatial villa in the Swiss city since May and last week had a successful operation on a cataract. But according to the London-based Arabic newspaper Al-Quds his health is failing, and this has prompted discussions on the sensitive issue of the succession. We were just talking about that... According to the paper two potential successors, Prince Sultan and Prince Salman, have met secretly with the king's inner circle in the past few weeks. The king's son, Mohamad, who is also his chief-of-staff, is said to have led talks aimed at finding an alternative to Crown Prince Abdullah, the kingdom's de facto ruler. Wonder how substantial this little flurry of rumors and reports actually is? And whether it ties in with the dead princes? The US government is reported to be opposed to the Abdullah succession because of his position on Israel and, more recently, Iraq. This week the Saudi government indicated it would deny US forces access to bases in the kingdom in the event of an attack on Iraq but insisted it had not asked US troops to leave its bases near Riyadh. Prince Abdullah's peace initiative for Palestine is also said to have damaged his standing in Washington. Kinda frays the edges of his "pro-American" description, doesn't it? The Saudi succession has the potential to destabilise the entire region. The ruling dynasty is under increasing international pressure to prove that it has not nurtured or encouraged al-Qaida elements, and a briefing paper presented to the Pentagon recently suggested the country should be viewed as a potential US enemy. Seems like everything, to include doing nothing, has the "potential to destabilize the entire region." |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |