Saudi King Fahd dies; half-brother takes over
BY JAMES RUPERT, STAFF CORRESPONDENT
Newsday (New York)
August 2, 2005
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Saudi Arabia’s King Fahd died yesterday and
was succeeded by his half-brother, Abdullah, ending a handover of
power that began a decade ago. Fahd was 82 and had been in decline
since a 1995 stroke. Abdullah is 81.
The formal succession will bring no quick changes to the country that
holds a quarter of the world’s known oil, but it will let Abdullah
accelerate his campaign for gradual reforms that are critical to the
country’s long-term stability, analysts said. During his 10 years as
the effective regent to Fahd, Abdullah has faced resistance in the
royal family to his efforts to reduce corruption, cut government
spending, streamline the economy and open policymaking to greater
public debate, Saudi watchers have said.
With the stability of the Saudi government one of the most worried-over
questions in the Middle East, Abdullah is seen by many as the best hope
for managing the evolution necessary to prevent violent upheaval. “He
is a godsend for the royal family” because “he has the highest level
of popular legitimacy” of any of its members, said Richard Dekmejian,
a political science professor and Middle East specialist at the
University of Southern California, who has written on the Saudi
political process.
Abdullah’s popularity is based on his image as the most austere, not
corrupt and just member of the royal family – a persona opposite that
of Fahd, who loved luxury. Abdullah is “a hard, tall, vigorous man
who represents the [Arabian] tribal values of surety and hard work,”
Dekmejian said.
News of Fahd’s death came in a statement read on state
television. “With all sorrow and sadness, the royal court … announces
the death of the custodian of the two holy mosques, King Fahd bin
Abdulaziz,” Information Minister Iyad Madani said. “He died after
suffering an illness. God now allows … King Fahd, with great mercy
and forgiveness, to reside in his wide heaven.”
Fahd, an overweight, long-time smoker, had diabetes, arthritis and
other ailments in addition to several reported strokes.
As a favored young son of the kingdom’s founder, King Abdulaziz bin
Saud, Fahd developed an affinity for the U.S. and for life in the West.
For decades, he spent months at a time in his villas and palaces in
Europe, Morocco and elsewhere.
As king he worked to reverse his playboy image and emphasized his
claim to religious authorities by adding to his title the phrase
“Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques,” the most sacred shrines of Islam,
in the cities of Mecca and Medina.
Fahd often was seen as a vacillating monarch, but he led his country
through a painful period of enormous change. Falling petroleum prices
slashed the country’s oil revenue from $110 billion in 1981, the year
before he took power, to $43 billion in 1990. That forced politically
difficult budget cuts, but Fahd remained a staunch U.S. ally who
could be counted on to pump more oil into the world market when prices
threatened Western economies.
He also made the dangerously controversial decision to invite U.S.
troops into the kingdom after Iraq’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait. The U.S.
military presence became a rallying point for Muslim extremists,
notably Osama bin Laden, and Fahd struggled to manage the
irreconcilable conflict between the royal family’s two essential
allies: the U.S. and the puritanical religious leadership of Saudi
Arabia’s Wahhabi sect of Islam.
“King Fahd was a man of wisdom and a leader who commanded respect
throughout the entire world. He was a friend and strong ally of the
United States for decades,” said President George W. Bush. Bush has
built close personal ties with Abdullah, inviting him to his Texas
ranch and calling him yesterday to express condolences.
French President Jacques Chirac said Fahd “put the safety of his
people above all else. In perilous times he was the guarantor of his
country’s cohesion and the defender of regional stability.”
Oil prices jumped $1 a barrel to a new high yesterday on the news
of Fahd’s death and any uncertainty it might bring but they later
retreated based on the smooth Saudi transition.
Funeral prayers for Fahd will be held today. Tomorrow Saudi citizens,
beginning with members of the royal family, will formally pledge bayat,
or allegiance, to King Abdullah.
In an arrangement negotiated years ago, Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz,
a brother of Fahd and the leading rival of Abdullah, has been named
crown prince. Sultan, 77, is seen as a major source of resistance
to Abdullah’s reforms, and analysts say a key signal for the speed
with which Abdullah will be able to enforce change will be whether a
“pro-reform” prince is named as the new third in line to the throne.
Where we buy oil
The United States relies on Saudi Arabia as its No. 3 foreign source
of crude oil. The top providers, as a percentage of U.S. crude imports:
Rank/country % of imports
1.Canada 16%
2. Mexico 16
3. Saudi Arabia 15
4. Venezuela 13
5. Nigeria 11
6. Iraq 6
7. Angola 3
8. Kuwait 2
SOURCE: Energy Information Administration
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From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress