King Fahd balanced conservative tradition and pro-Western policy

King Fahd balanced conservative tradition and pro-Western policy

Dubai (Platts)--1Aug2005

King Fahd, who died Monday aged 84, had for decades maintained a delicate
balance between conservative Muslim tradition in the oil-rich desert kingdom
and a pro-Western foreign policy since assuming the desert throne in 1982.
King Fahd, who succeeded his half-brother King Khaled, was the fifth monarch
of the kingdom founded by his father King Abdulaziz bin Saud in 1932. Rumors
of his death, which occured quite frenquently, would invariably add a dollar
or two to the barrel of crude oil on world markets in the past. But as Fahd's
half-brother Crown Prince Abdullah took over the day-to-day running of Saudi
Arabia's affairs, concern that the next in line to the Saudi throne would
radically shift the country's foreign and domestic policy eased and there was
no sharp move up in oil prices after the official announcement of his death at
dawn in a Riyadh hospital. Prince Abdullah was immediately named his
successor, a move interpreted by markets as signalling no radical shift in
policy in the kingdom, which holds a quarter of the world's oil reserves.

Crown Prince Abdullah has been de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia since 1996,
after his half-brother suffered a stroke. King Fahd's health problems were in
the past watched closely by the oil industry, which trembled at the prospect
of the demise of the modernizing leader of the world's biggest oil exporting
nation. But for nearly a decade, King Fahd has left the day-to-day running of
the kingdom's affairs to his half-brother Prince Abdullah. It was Prince
Abdullah who in 1998 invited foreign oil companies to invest in Saudi Arabia's
upstream gas projects. The Sep 11 attacks in the US and allegations that 15 of
the 19 hijackers were Saudi nationals severely tested the special relationship
with Washington, leading some hawkish politicians in the US to call for a
review of the alliance with the house of Saud. The diplomatic relationship
began to show signs of strain.

Riyadh, already angry over what it viewed as blind support by US President
George W. Bush for Israel in an escalating conflict with the Palestinians,
refused Washington permission to use its airbases for an attack against Iraq
in 2003. The Saudi leadership was also incensed at the anti-Islamic backlash
that followed Washington's naming Saudi-born dissident Osama Bin Laden as its
prime suspect for the Sep 11 attacks. Riyadh's anger was stoked even further
after a report by an independent analyst to an influential panel of government
advisers described Saudi Arabia as an enemy of the US, and referred to Riyadh
as the "the kernel of evil, the prime mover, the most dangerous opponent" that
Washington faces in the Middle East. If reports by the Saudi Arabian
opposition group MIRA are to be believed, King Fahd's mental health had by
then deteriorated to the extent that he would have been oblivious to the
torrent of mostly critical news reports about his country.

King Fahd was admitted to hospital May 28 with a lung infection. Indications
that Riyadh was putting its house in order in anticipation of the king's death
came when the long-standing Saudi ambassador to Washington, Prince Bandar bin
Sultan, went home after 22 years in the US amid expectations he would get an
important post in a post-Fahd government. His father Prince Sultan has been
officially named crown prince by King Abdullah, a move which again signals a
smooth transition of power. King Fahd's strength lay in his ability to appease
the conservative Muslim Wahabi sect which is predominant in Saudi Arabia by
keeping Saudi society closed to external influences while retaining a close
political relationship with Washington, which dated back to 1933 when Standard
Oil of California was granted the first oil concession in Saudi Arabia. When
Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1990, King Fahd invited foreign troops to deploy
in the kingdom that houses Islam's holiest shrine, drawing criticism from
traditionalists who were horrified at the sight of Western women driving jeeps
while Saudi women were kept behind a veil and banned from driving a car.

This year saw the country's first elections to the consultative or Shura
Council, a gesture to Washington which has been pressing Gulf Arab states to
modernize and democratize. Crown Prince Abdullah began the process of
repairing ties with the US and earlier this year visited George W. Bush's
Crawford, Texas, ranch for talks that both sides later said consolidated the
special ties between the two sides. King Fahd also chaired the council of
ministers, the supreme body of Saudi government, and also held the position of
prime minister. He is known to have suffered from diabetes and a number of
other minor ailments. In the last few years, King Fahd, whose official
biography puts his birthdate as 1923, moved in a wheelchair and wore dark
glasses. King Fahd is considered one of the world's wealthiest men--author
Said Aburish estimated his wealth at $28-bil in his book Ibn Saud--though the
king toned down his early ostentatious lifestyle in later years as his health
deteriorated.

Yet despite the materialistic lifestyle of villas in Marbella, yachts and
palaces dotted around the kingdom, there was a mystic side to the Saudi
monarch. It is said that a clairvoyant once told the king that no harm would
come to him so long as his son Abdelaziz remained by his side. From then on,
the king never travelled anywhere without his favorite son. Although he seldom
went abroad in his later years, King Fahd was introduced early in life to the
world of international diplomacy. In 1945, aged 22, he accompanied his elder
brother, Prince Faisal Bin Abdul Aziz, to the signing of the UN Charter in San
Francisco. He represented his country at Queen Elizabeth's coronation in 1953.
"Members of the family have pledged allegience to Crown Prince Abdullah bin
Abdel Aziz as king over the country," the official statement announcing his
death said. "Then, King Abudullah bin Abdul Aziz... chose Defence Minister
Sultan bin Abdul Aziz as crown prince... and members of the family pledged
allegience to his excellency."

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