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He became regent and king, at an age when many of his contemporaries have already withdrawn from politics. Long considered a hardline conservative, reluctant to open his country to the changing world, Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud, died Friday, January 23 in Riyadh as a result of pneumonia, however, was just the opposite. Until old age combined impact of the “Arab Spring”, brings him back to a form of orthodoxy. Reformer as can be Saudi land, he tried to adapt his kingdom to the demands of the times. Tirelessly, he tried to limit institutional bastions granted to the most radical religious by his predecessor.
It reacts to the attacks of September 11, 2001 attacks by suicide bombers, a majority of his subjects were, in formulating provides a comprehensive peace with Israel. He illustrated a historic visit to the Vatican a desire for interreligious dialogue away Islam quicksand of a rigor and a return to the religion of “pious ancestors” he considered hardly compatible with the official title “Custodian of the holy places.” The Iranian obsession, however, prevented normalize its relations with the Kingdom of Shiite minority, and other religions practiced in the kingdom (especially by expatriates cohorts) remained condemned to secrecy.
“Free Princes”
Born in 1924, Abdullah was born in a kingdom far enough yet to contours of today. Based in Riyadh for two decades, his father, Abdul Aziz bin Abdul Rahman, the founder of the third Saudi state, has just expanded its territory to the waters of the Arabian Gulf which endures the myriad of UAE under the British auspices. We have to wait almost a decade to Abdel Aziz, proclaimed in 1926 King Hejjaz and its two holy cities of Mecca and Medina, and King of Nejd in 1927, formally establish the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1932.
Elevated to the court in the material conditions still very sketchy (the discovery of oil in 1937 involved), Abdullah was the tenth son of the sovereign. It is related by his mother, Fahda BintAssi, to the Shammar tribe, present in the Nejd in the center of the Arabian Peninsula to Syria, but he is the only male heir of this union, unlike some of his half-brothers bound by their mothers, and especially Jilououis Soudeyris.
Abdallah political beginnings are little known. Seduced by the pan-Arab nationalism, it is, according to some sources, on the verge of joining his elders, “free princes,” leaving Riyadh for Cairo Nasserism in 1962. It took the struggle for influence between the first heir, Saud, who became king in 1953, and Faisal, the third son of Abdel Aziz, to appear in the foreground alongside Prince protest, which will be his political mentor.
When Saud leaves power in 1964, ostensibly for health reasons, Faisal Abdullah propels the head of the National Guard, one of the instruments responsible for ensuring the sustainability of the dynasty, with the royal guard and army, after ousting the son Saud Saad. Abdullah, who has the confidence of the tribes that compose it, will make it the most reliable support of the dynasty, although it will be faulted in the attack against the sanctuary of Makkah Al-Otaibi by Jouhayman in 1979 .
attacked Monarchy
Every time his half-brothers try to move it away from the estate, they will strive in vain to deprive Abdullah the direction of the National Guard, which handles the protection of oil fields. This strategic position and the necessary collegiality implied by the existing inheritance mode for the heirs of Abdul Aziz (depletion of candidates from the first generation of princes before switching to the next) explains Abdallah to promote position of second deputy prime minister in the wake of the assassination of Faisal in 1975, and the accession to the throne Khaled.
Heir second after Fahd Abdullah manages to maintain its position during the reign of Khaled, despite the stranglehold Soudeyris clan, whose most prominent members (in addition Fahd) monopolize the leadership positions Sultan defense, Nayef and Salman inside the Governorate of Riyadh. When Fahd ascended the throne in 1982 after the death of Khaled Abdullah became first deputy prime minister and, therefore, the crown prince. Despite some nuances, the two men live together quite well. Their power-sharing (Fahd is responsible for contacts with the West while Abdullah maintains ties with the Arab countries) was quick to classify the crown prince among conservatives hostile to the West. An impression that following his path will dissipate.
Discreet during the earthquake posed to the Arabian Peninsula’s invasion of Kuwait by the Iraqi army on 2 August 1990, Abdullah is in contrast to the first powered row, 72 years old, by the stroke suffered by Fahd November 29, 1995. It reached de facto responsibilities under the worst conditions.
The monarchy is indeed attacked from all sides. For those first that overwhelm for having been unable to defend the kingdom despite the huge arms contracts with the West, and have been reduced to accept the presence of non-Muslim troops on Saudi soil . Then by those who believe the contrary that the Saud dynasty, after this confession of impotence is no longer able to oppose a move towards more democracy, even to a constitutional monarchy. It is in this climate, and under the supervision of his half-brothers, beginning with the second deputy prime minister, Sultan, Abdullah gradually taking the measure of the load.
In 1996, the attack against the US base at Dhahran sounds like a warning. This threat becomes clearer in 2001 with the attacks of September 11, perpetrated by Al-Qaida in New York and Washington. Fifteen suicide bombers recruited by Osama bin Laden are Saudis.
A double blow to the head of the terrorist network stripped of his Saudi citizenship and strikes the same movement the “near enemy” Saudi and “far enemy” American. In the US, the reaction was virulent against kingdom accused of having allowed to grow or to have fed an absolute hatred of the United States, yet historic ally of the dynasty of Saud. The discomfort is compounded by the first statements dignitaries credence theories of the wildest conspiracy.
Diplomatic Initiative
Six months later, in February 2002, Prince Abdullah, receiving the American journalist Thomas Friedman reveals a diplomatic initiative to dispel the discomfort. Abdallah, taking in outline the Fahd plan presented twenty years earlier, provides a global normalization with Israel in the Arab world for the price of a Palestinian state based on 1967 borders (the West Bank and Gaza).
This initiative is endorsed by the Arab League a few weeks later in Beirut. In full offensive against the Palestinian Authority Yasser Arafat, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is careful not to give away, but the key is for Abdallah to be able to give another image of his country.
The death of Fahd, 1 st August 2005 finally gives him full power to more than 80 years. The energy expended by the new king in his first years of rule made to regret many intellectuals and businessmen that long transition decade synonymous with stagnation. National dialogue extended to the Shiite minority, debates about the place of women in society, creating an allegiance council to regulate the rules of succession and prepare for the transition to the new generation. Abdallah multiplies sites
Renowned integrity, he tries to end corruption, particularly generated by the arms contracts with the West and whose Yamamah folder (between Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom) is the symbol. It attacks in the same movement to the excesses of the vice squad, the dreaded Moutawwa, and does not hesitate to spread the ulama, considered too conservative.
Fear of Shiite
Iran
Related to the burdens of the kingdom, the reforms Abdullah settle their boldness, but they also have their limitations, especially as from December 2010, the Arab-Muslim world is carried by an unprecedented wave of reforms in its modern history. Despite his efforts, Abdallah has only a relative margin of maneuver within the royal family.
It can prevent the emergence of Prince Nayef, fresh from his success against the jihadists Saudis. The interior minister, criticized for his conservatism, in 2009 became the second deputy prime minister, after a second heir Sultan weakened by illness, then crown prince after the death of his half-brother, in October 2011.
It is under the aegis of the strong man granting asylum to the ousted Tunisian President Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali that Saudi Arabia supports the suppression of an uprising in Bahrain threatens the dynasty Khalifa, the forced the Saudi state. When the king opened the floodgates of public spending to avoid contagion of “Arab spring”, the Ministry of Interior and the religious police are not forgotten.
If the wave of “spring” sees as Saudi Arabia Abdullah support revolutionaries in Syria, it is mainly because the ancestral fear of Shiite Iran, expressed unvarnished King in the US diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks some months before the outweighs the interest of regional stability and that this challenge is a way to weaken the Tehran-Damascus-Hezbollah axis.
The old weaken the rule of the sovereign, in a country where the absence of challenge Public does not mean unconditional support. The sudden death of Nayef in June 2012, although reshuffles the cards within the royal family, but for the benefit of the latest leading Soudeyri Salman, whose promotion preserves the short-term horizon of the House of Saud.
After the death of Abdullah, the latter now rests on the pillars formed by the king’s son – and Mitab Mishaal – those of Nayef – and Mohammed Saud – and, above all, the crown prince Second, Muqrin bin Abdul Aziz, former governor and former head of intelligence, born in 1945. The youngest son of the founder of the kingdom.
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