Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah landed in US on Monday to receive medical treatment, while the Crown Prince Sultan went back home to lead the country in his absence.
The King, thought to be 86 or 87 years old, asked the Crown Prince, also in his 80s, to return to Saudi Arabia from Morocco, as the country is intent on showing the world, and especially allies, that there would be no power vacuum due to health issues of aging rulers in the world’s largest oil exporters.
The Saudi Arabian ruler is in need of medical treatment after a complication to a slipped spinal disc cause by a blood clot. It is not clear when the king will resume his duties back home.
A cause of anxiety is the fact that it is yet unknown whether power would fall into the hands of a reformist or a conservative. With both rulers aging and showing more and more health problems, speculation that Prince Nayef (76), currently the Interior Minister, could take over the affairs of the country in the near future, especially since Crown Prince and defense minister Sultan has health issues as well.
In a move to secure leadership, King Abdullah appointed Nayef, his half-brother, as second deputy prime minister in 2009. However, Western governments’ representatives in Riyadh appear concerned about Nayef’s rise to power, as he is viewed as a social and religious traditionalist.
The political stability of Saudi Arabia, controlling a fifth of the global oil reserves, is of crucial regional and global importance. The kingdom is a crucial US ally in the Middle East, home of the largest Arab stock exchange as well as a major owner of dollar assets. Although Abdullah’s leadership is regarded as crucial by the US, his state of health is cause for concern ever since July, when he cancelled a visit to France.
