And just as quickly, fell back even lower.
Posted on 01/23/2015 9:33:02 AM PST by Mozilla
The longtime king of Saudi Arabia, Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, passed away on Friday. But the death of the 90-year-old monarch didn’t seem to come as much of a shock to the Saudi establishment. When royal officials acknowledged Abdullah’s death, it was also revealed that Crown Prince Salman would succeed his brother. For the time being, the succession process seemed to have preserved stability in the Saudi Kingdom.
Within hours, traders who speculated that the new king may take a critical look at Saudi policies, which have allowed crude prices to collapse in recent months, created a rally in the oil markets. Overnight, crude prices spiked by $1.18, a 2.4 percent increase. “Crude oil prices pared gains on the news [of a European Central Bank bond buying program], but Brent was still 1.3% higher at $49.15 a barrel mid-morning” The Guardian reported. “Many analysts do not expect Saudi oil policy to change.”
But just how rational is the exuberance over what looks to be a stable Saudi succession process? Maybe, foreign analysts should curb their enthusiasm a bit. The 79-year-old future monarch is known to be in poor health and to suffer from dementia. As one Middle East analyst told The Washington Post, the rise of a potentially unstable and ailing new king to the Saudi throne at a time when the region is in crisis is not a promising sign.
“Despite so many people saying it will be a smooth transition, there’s every reason to believe that Saudi Arabia is heading for rough times,” Simon Henderson, an expert on the Saudi succession at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said in an interview Thursday.
“Having a king with dementia is the last thing they need at this difficult time,” Henderson said. “Yemen is falling apart, ISIS is knocking at the door. This is an extraordinarily dangerous Middle East from a Saudi perspective."
How old is his youngest bride?
Just like the current US king!
Big deal we have a president with the same thing.
And just as quickly, fell back even lower.
And the bad news, the president of the United States is 53 and demented!
“How old is his youngest bride?” No Idea
As king, Salman, 78, will have to navigate regional turmoil caused by wars in Iraq and Syria, as well as a bitter rivalry with Shi’ite Muslim power Iran and a lingering threat from an al Qaeda wing in neighboring Yemen.
A reputed moderate with a deft understanding of the competing demands of conservative clerics, powerful tribes and an increasingly youthful population, Salman will also have the final say on social and economic reforms started under Abdullah.
“It appeared to me he had a good handle on the delicate balancing act he had to do to move society forward while being respectful of its traditions and conservative ways,” said Robert Jordan who was U.S. ambassador in Riyadh from 2001-03.
A physically imposing figure, Salman controls one of the Arab world’s largest media groups. He believes that democracy is ill-suited to the conservative kingdom and advocates caution on social and cultural reform, according to a 2007 U.S. diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks.
For nearly 50 years Salman was governor of Riyadh Province, a role that involved working closely with both conservative traditionalists and liberal technocrats as he oversaw the development of the Saudi capital from a small desert town to a major metropolis.
However, when two elder full-brothers, crown princes Sultan and Nayef died within a year of each other, Salman was appointed first Defense Minister and then heir apparent.
The defense portfolio involved running the kingdom’s top-spending ministry, which used massive arms purchases to bolster ties with allies such as the United States, Britain and France.
He has been part of the inner circle of the al-Saud ruling family, which founded and still dominates the desert kingdom in alliance with conservative religious clerics, for decades.
In a royal family that bases its right to rule on its guardianship of Islam’s holiest sites in Mecca and Medina, Salman is reputed to be devout and relatively outward-looking.
“He’s intelligent, political, in touch with the conservative base but also quite modern-minded,” said a former diplomat in Riyadh interviewed about the kingdom’s succession process.
From: http://www.thetrentonline.com/saudi-arabias-salman-named-new-king/
Truee. Obama is demented.
If only he was demented in that happy carefree Dr. Demento way, I would be okay.
Here we actually have to go out in the November snow and ELECT people with dementia.
With most everyone demented then it is hard to know whom to support I get it.
How can you tell if a Muslim has dementia? They are ALL insane. Maybe they put on a bomb belt and forget where to go to detonate??
“The 79-year-old future monarch is known to be in poor health and to suffer from dementia.”
The article presumes Arabs exist who are not demented.
Strict proof is demanded.
1,400 years of incest carries a genetic cost. In the case of Muslims, that cost is transparently clear - Muslims do not have an “Inferiority Complex”.
They are inferior, its in their genes.
Siiiiix Baaaaaaaaa! :-)
Paging monarchy list.
Demented?
Crown Prince Salman doesn’t hold a candle compared to Joe Biden.
The advantage of monarchy over democracy is not in that a monarchy is immune from a king who is in poor health but in that a king, especially if frail, has less governing to do.
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