 RIYADH — Three weeks after King Fahd was taken to hospital with pneumonia Saudis are waiting anxiously for news of their frail and elderly monarch, skeptical about repeated official assurances that his health is improving. Fahd, who is in his early 80s, has been treated amid relative secrecy at the King Faisal Specialist Hospital in southwest Riyadh since his admission on May 27. A medical source who saw the king in recent days told Reuters he is on a respirator to help maintain the illusion he's alive his breathing as he continues to battle decomposition the pneumonia. From the outset, his brothers have said Fahd's health is improving and he could be out of hospital "within days." | Well, one way or the other |
But many Saudis remain unconvinced. "There is a deliberate media blackout on the real state of his health," said Ahmed Otaibi, a 32-year-old owner of a health clinic, adding that the policy might be aimed at avoiding "domestic or international problems." | I'll take domestic fight for power for $500, Alex |
"I just want the king to be well," he said. The royal family is anxious to give the impression of business as usual in the world's biggest oil exporter, which has been tackling a two-year wave of violence by supporters of Saudi-born Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network. Interior Minister Prince Nayef -- Fahd's younger brother -- traveled to the United Arab Emirates this week to discuss a border accord and Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal flew to Egypt for talks, apparently to show that Fahd's illness has not paralyzed affairs of state.
----snip-----
The usual early summer transfer of Saudi Arabia's royal court from the capital Riyadh to the Red Sea city of Jeddah has been delayed because of uncertainty surrounding the king. Diplomats say Fahd's continued hospital confinement, despite first-class medical facilities at his royal palaces, show that the monarch remains gravely ill. Officials say Fahd was born in 1921 or 1923 -- at the time few records were kept in the impoverished desert kingdom his father was still creating before the discovery of oil. |