Word: fahd
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Three months after the gulf war ended, Saudi Arabia seems to have returned to its placid ways. But the calm atmosphere is a mirage. Operation Desert Storm may be over, but it has unleashed powerful political and social crosswinds in the kingdom. Buffeted by the currents, King Fahd is struggling to preserve a precarious balance between secular moderates and religious conservatives while opening up the family-run government to his subjects. At stake is not only the direction of Saudi society, but also the survival of a royal dynasty that has ruled the country since its founding 60 years...
...been forced to borrow $7 billion to fulfill commitments to the U.S.-led alliance. Despite a wartime surge in oil production from 5.5 million to 8 million bbl. a day, Western economists estimate a budget deficit of $25 billion this year. Skittish about both the expense and foreign entanglements, Fahd has reneged on an agreement to base a Pan-Arab defense force composed primarily of Egyptian and Syrian troops on Saudi soil. The plan envisaged an exchange of Egyptian and Syrian military manpower for economic and financial...
...country's postwar foreign policy has been a mix of shortsightedness and self-interest. Like the Bush Administration, Fahd had hoped Saddam Hussein would be a casualty of the gulf war; the King now fears that a Shi'ite-dominated Iraq possibly aligned with Iran is worse than coexisting with a weakened Saddam. Washington's hopes of Saudi leadership in the intensified search for Arab-Israeli peace were dashed when Riyadh refused direct participation in negotiations with Israel. Only under intense U.S. pressure did the Saudis consent to discuss such peripheral issues with Israel as arms control and water rights...
...Saudis and the other gulf states to agree earlier this month to serve collectively as an observer to a Middle East conference and to participate in talks with Israel on regional issues like water distribution, economic development and arms control. Worried about a backlash by Saudi conservatives, King Fahd is hesitant to go any further. The Saudis want to keep the U.S. happy in case their security is threatened again. Given U.S. reliance on gulf oil, however, the Saudis also realize that they do not have to be servile to Washington...
Saudi Arabia's King Fahd and Kuwait's Emir Jaber al-Sabah would be deeply distressed to find democracy and Palestine in their backyard. But they could do nothing about it. Other countries with a basic interest in the Israeli- Palestinian conflict, especially Syria and Egypt, would privately applaud Hussein...