King Fahd

DHAHRAN, Saudi Arabia -- When President Bush arrives tonight in Saudi Arabia, his presence will highlight dramatic changes in the kingdom's relationship with the United States and in Mr. Bush's ability to win public support for the military buildup against Iraq.Mr. Bush and King Fahd of Saudi Arabia are counting on the trip to silence domestic critics, who in both countries focus their complaints on potential consequences from the deployment of more than 230,000 U.S. troops in the Saudi desert.

ASSESSING U.S.-Saudi relations following the death of King Fahd requires us to return to Crawford, Texas, and the April visit of then Crown Prince Abdullah. The meeting between the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia and President Bush reaffirmed the close relationship of the two countries and set the parameters for their dealings on all the key topics - oil, terrorism, Middle East peace and political reform. The commitments reached then are a good indication of what matters to the now King Abdullah and the course he will pursue as successor to his half-brother.

HAFR AL BATIN, Saudi Arabia -- Saudi Arabia's King Fahd appealed yesterday for Iraq to "avoid bloodshed" and pledged to support negotiations over Iraq's territorial claims following a pullout from Kuwait.The Saudi monarch continued to emphasize that a withdrawal of troops from Kuwait was a "precondition" to any negotiations, but his remarks to Western journalists appeared to endorse the idea of offering Iraqi President Saddam Hussein the prospect of progress on his claims against Kuwait without appearing to reward Iraq for its Aug. 2 invasion of the tiny oil emirate.

WASHINGTON - The death of Saudi King Fahd and the ascension of Abdullah Abdulaziz al Saud, his half-brother, to the throne portend no major changes in the U.S.-Saudi relations or on issues of great importance to the United States such as oil policy or terrorism. As crown prince, Abdullah has been the de facto ruler since 1995, when King Fahd had a stroke. President Bush knows King Abdullah well, and the two have met twice at the president's ranch in Crawford, Texas. Principal changes are likely to be at home.

King Fahd of Saudi Arabia, who led his desert kingdom into a controversial military alliance with the United States that produced a violent backlash by Islamic fundamentalists, died yesterday at the King Faisal Specialist Hospital in Riyadh, the Saudi capital. He was believed to be 84. Crown Prince Abdullah, the king's half-brother and the effective leader of the kingdom since the mid-1990s when a stroke incapacitated the king, was chosen by the royal family to succeed him. King Fahd's funeral is scheduled today in Riyadh.

The changes that King Fahd has decreed for Saudi Arabia do not compare with those of the French Revolution, or the Gorbachev era in Russia or the current ferment in South Africa. Yet all of them have similarities: the reforms appear to be too little and they seem designed to forestall more fundamental transformation. Yet it is possible that the Saudi shifts, like the first moves of perestroika, could open up the country to deeper alterations than King Fahd ever contemplated.Iraq's invasion of Kuwait and threat to Saudi Arabia in 1990 and King Fahd's request for non-Muslim help from the United States have shaken the desert oil kingdom.

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia -- Secretary of State James A. Baker III arrived in the Persian Gulf yesterday and discussed the timing and costs of war with coalition partners after his impasse the day before with Iraq's foreign minister.With the United Nations deadline now just days away, a top U.S. official hinted that war could be averted if Iraq started actively pulling its troops out of Kuwait by Jan. 15, but had not totally withdrawn.Meanwhile, a senior U.S. administration official said thatoutgoing Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze would have "further communications" with the Iraqi government to say that "time is running on."

KING FAHD of Saudi Arabia is the fourth son of founding monarch Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud to succeed his father, who died in 1953. Fahd is 74, fat, diabetic, pleasure-seeking, Westernizing and suffered a stroke in November. On assuming power in 1982 he named his half-brother, Abdullah, to be crown prince, heir apparent, second-in-command and head of the tribal-based National Guard. Abdullah is 72, thin, ascetic, traditionalist, pious and speaks no English.King Fahd's New Year's Day appointment of Prince Abdullah to perform royal duties until he recuperates reassured the kingdom that there is no power struggle or change, at least not now. Much is made of Abdullah's stronger Arab traditionalism, compared to Fahd's modernizing.

CAIRO, Egypt - In a region that is increasingly defined by instability, the Saudi royal family moved promptly and assuredly yesterday to project an image of certainty, for the benefit of both domestic and international stability. At the same time that it was announced that King Fahd had died, Crown Prince Abdullah was declared the new monarch, and the Saudi defense minister, Prince Sultan, was named the new crown prince. Within three days of the announcement, a funeral and ceremony to declare loyalty to the new king is to be completed.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- The eyes of Saudi Arabia's royal family were on its national soccer team yesterday.And their hands may be in their wallets today."

CAIRO, Egypt - In a region that is increasingly defined by instability, the Saudi royal family moved promptly and assuredly yesterday to project an image of certainty, for the benefit of both domestic and international stability. At the same time that it was announced that King Fahd had died, Crown Prince Abdullah was declared the new monarch, and the Saudi defense minister, Prince Sultan, was named the new crown prince. Within three days of the announcement, a funeral and ceremony to declare loyalty to the new king is to be completed.

WASHINGTON -- The bombing in Saudi Arabia last June that %% killed 19 Americans not only confirmed that the United States had woefully inadequate intelligence about the aggressive opposition within Saudi Arabia. %%%% It also underlined how U.S. ties to the Saudi royal family are inhibiting Washington from solving the intelligence problem.After the bombing, the CIA organized for the first time a task force of analysts throughout the government to study Saudi Arabia under the same rigorous process used to assess the most serious threats to U.S. national security, senior intelligence officials said.

THE RECENT bombing of American personnel in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, shocked Americans, and raised a serious question about the violent Persian Gulf: How stable is the Saudi royal family? Can it go down in flames as did the once invincible Shah of Iran, thus undermining vital U.S. interests in the Persian Gulf region?While media reports might lead one to believe so, in reality the Saudis face serious problems, but they also possess the ability deal with them. It is important to understand both the sources of trouble and of stability in the kingdom to have a balanced view of what is happening in this critical region of the world.

KING FAHD of Saudi Arabia is the fourth son of founding monarch Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud to succeed his father, who died in 1953. Fahd is 74, fat, diabetic, pleasure-seeking, Westernizing and suffered a stroke in November. On assuming power in 1982 he named his half-brother, Abdullah, to be crown prince, heir apparent, second-in-command and head of the tribal-based National Guard. Abdullah is 72, thin, ascetic, traditionalist, pious and speaks no English.King Fahd's New Year's Day appointment of Prince Abdullah to perform royal duties until he recuperates reassured the kingdom that there is no power struggle or change, at least not now. Much is made of Abdullah's stronger Arab traditionalism, compared to Fahd's modernizing.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- The eyes of Saudi Arabia's royal family were on its national soccer team yesterday.And their hands may be in their wallets today."

The changes that King Fahd has decreed for Saudi Arabia do not compare with those of the French Revolution, or the Gorbachev era in Russia or the current ferment in South Africa. Yet all of them have similarities: the reforms appear to be too little and they seem designed to forestall more fundamental transformation. Yet it is possible that the Saudi shifts, like the first moves of perestroika, could open up the country to deeper alterations than King Fahd ever contemplated.Iraq's invasion of Kuwait and threat to Saudi Arabia in 1990 and King Fahd's request for non-Muslim help from the United States have shaken the desert oil kingdom.

ASSESSING U.S.-Saudi relations following the death of King Fahd requires us to return to Crawford, Texas, and the April visit of then Crown Prince Abdullah. The meeting between the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia and President Bush reaffirmed the close relationship of the two countries and set the parameters for their dealings on all the key topics - oil, terrorism, Middle East peace and political reform. The commitments reached then are a good indication of what matters to the now King Abdullah and the course he will pursue as successor to his half-brother.

CAIRO, Egypt -- Saudi Arabia's King Fahd announced major new steps toward democratic reform yesterday, creating a national consultative council to provide citizens a voice in government and spelling out guarantees for personal liberties for the first time in the history of the conservative desert kingdom.The king also may have opened the door to younger, more dynamic members of the ruling Saud dynasty to succeed to the throne in future years. But any new monarch would maintain the positions of prime minister and commander-in-chief of the armed forces.