Saudi Arabia alert as king is taken ill

Saudi Arabia’s King Fahd, whose actions to strengthen the oil kingdom’s ties with the US brought down the wrath of Islamic militants, was taken to a Riyadh hospital yesterday apparently suffering from pneumonia.

An Arab official said the Saudi government had put the kingdom – the world’s largest oil exporter – on a state of alert and cancelled all military leaves as a precaution.

News of Fahd’s deteriorating health had been blamed for sending the Saudi stock market tumbling 5% earlier in the week.

Fahd’s half brother, Crown Prince Abdullah, has been Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler for nearly a decade, since Fahd suffered a stroke in 1995 – and Abdullah is expected to be named king should Fahd die.

Nevertheless, Saudi Arabia’s strategic importance as the holder of the world’s largest oil reserves and the fact that it is home to Islam’s two holiest shrines means even a stable succession could affect world markets and have widespread political fallout.

With the portly, goateed Fahd only a figurehead in the last decade, it has been Abdullah who has overseen the kingdom’s crackdown on Islamic militants after followers of Saudi-born Osama bin Laden launched a wave of attacks.

On the streets, there was no sign of an increased security presence.

Fahd is the son of the founder of modern Saudi Arabia, King Abdul Aziz.

During his rule, he brought the kingdom closer to the US. His most significant action was a step that enraged many Islamic extremists: Allowing the basing of US troops on Saudi soil after the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.

Al-Qaida leader bin Laden cited the US troops’ presence as a main provocation when he launched his attacks against both the US and the wave of attacks inside the kingdom.

During his rule, Fahd tried to balance overtures toward the West with concessions to hard-liners, hoping to boost his Islamic credentials. He had himself named the custodian of Islam’s two holiest sites, in the western Saudi cities of Mecca and Medina.

Under the kingdom’s constitution, each of the 44 sons of King Abdul Aziz, the founder of modern Saudi Arabia, had a claim to the throne before its passing to the next generation.