Saudi Arabia in royal mess over successor to 90-year-old king

The incumbent Saudi king is in hospital with pneumonia and his assumed successor is 79 and suffers from dementia. The country is at a crossroads, writes Mohamad Bazzi

IN HIS annual “state-of-the-kingdom” address last week, Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah hoped to reassure the world that his country is prepared to absorb the economic shock of plummeting oil prices and to deal with the worsening conflict in its two neighbours, Iraq and Yemen.

The message might have been more effective had the 90-year-old king delivered it personally, but Abdullah has been hospitalised since December 31 for pneumonia.