Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah dies at 90, Prince Salman to succeed
Prince Muqrin, a former head of intelligence in Saudi Arabia and half-brother to both Salman and Abdullah, was announced as the crown prince
King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud was 90 years old. (Source: AP)
By: LEE KEATH & ABDULLAH AL-SHIHRI
His changes looked minute to the outside world. But in a kingdom where ultra-conservative Muslim clerics long have held a lock on all aspects of society, King Abdullah’s incremental reforms echoed mightily.
When Abdullah took the unprecedented step of opening a new university where men and women could mix in classrooms, part of his gradual campaign to modernise Saudi Arabia, grumbling arose among the hardliners who form the bedrock of the powerful religious establishment. One sheikh dared to openly say the mingling of genders at the king’s university was “a great sin and a great evil”.
Abdullah sent a tough signal: He fired the critic from the state-run body of clerics who set the rules for Saudi life.
As one of the world’s largest oil exporters, Saudi Arabia is governed by a mix of tribal traditions and perhaps the world’s strictest interpretation of Islam. Its royal family prefers to act quietly in the background, shies away from direct confrontation, avoids putting itself on the line and prefers slow-paced change to radical reform.
But Abdullah, who died Friday at the age of 90 after nearly two decades in power, acted at times with unusual forcefulness for a Saudi monarch. At home, the results were reforms, including advancements for women, that were startling – for the kingdom at least – and a heavy crackdown against al-Qaeda militants. Abroad, his methods translated into a powerful assertion of Saudi Arabia’s influence around the Middle East.
In this Nov. 15, 2014, file photo, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud walks to his seat to join other world leaders to watch a cultural performance of indigenous dancers at the G20 in Brisbane, Australia. (Source: AP)
Backed by the kingdom’s top ally, the United States, the king was aggressive in trying to put up a bulwark against the spreading power of Saudi Arabia’s top rival, mainly Shia Iran, thus shaping the Arab world along new lines – an anti-Iran camp and a pro-Iran camp.
According to a leaked US diplomatic memo, Abdullah urged Washington in 2008 to consider military action against Iran to “cut off the head of the snake” because of its nuclear advances.
He pushed Gulf allies into taking increasingly vocal stands against Iran and sought to isolate Syria because of its alliance with Tehran.
In Syria, Abdullah stepped indirectly into the civil war that emerged after 2011. He supported and armed rebels battling to overthrow President Bashar Assad and pressed the Obama administration to do the same. Iran’s allies Hezbollah and Iraqi Shia militias rushed to back Assad, and the resulting conflict has left hundreds of thousands dead and driven millions of Syrians from their homes.
In other countries, Abdullah was an iron-willed defender of the status quo, standing against any pressure from the street to change the autocratic Sunni Arab fraternity of monarchs, emirs and sheiks who rule the Gulf region from Kuwait to Oman. He also rushed to the aid of Egypt’s military-backed government when it overthrew that country’s Islamist president.
“You could call Abdullah sort of the leader of the anti-Arab Spring,” said Ehsan Ahrari, a political analyst in Alexandria, Virginia, who follows Mideast affairs.
Abdullah ultimately strengthened the Saudi alliance with the US with close cooperation against al-Qaeda and against Iran.
Tall and heavyset, Abdullah felt more at home in the Nejd, the kingdom’s desert heartland, riding his favourite stallions and hunting with falcons. Even as Saudi Arabia was transformed by oil money, Abdullah — who has spoken with a stutter since birth — never appeared comfortable with the trappings of hyper-wealth.
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