The King Is Dead, Long Live His Geriatric Brother...
http://leelajacinto.blogs.france24.com/article/2015/01/23/king-dead-long-live-his-geriatric-brother
After weeks of deathbed vigils and reams of column space devoted to an upcoming succession saga, Saudi King Abdullah died in hospital aged 90.
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All of which creates a characteristically Saudi form of anxiety that also grips experts monitoring the oil-rich Sunni powerhouse. This rises further when Saudi TV stations broadcast clips of
the reigning monarch and his successor shuffling into grand assembly halls stooped, unsteady and clutching their gold-rimmed thawbs, or traditional robes. Sometimes, the monarch has to shake a royal limb for the al ardah -- a Saudi sword dance of minimal movement -- and that can be particularly excruciating to behold.
No boy-kings of course in this country of old men. As everyone knows, Saudi Arabia does not follow the primogeniture system that supplies countries like Britain their successions of entitled, first-born monarchs. Power in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has been handed from brother-to-brother among the 45 sons (from different women, of course) of Saudi founding father, Abdel Aziz Ibn Saud.
But theyre running out of Ibn Saud sons. The brothers and half-brothers have been steadily aging, dying and most of the ones still standing (even barely) are considered unfit to rule.
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Very good read on the future dilemmas facing the dysfunctional "HOUSE of SAUD".