Word: fahd
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Some Saudi liberals seek U.S. support for their campaign for change. "We hope the American presence is not just protection for the status quo," says a businessman. "We assume it will bring an improvement in the integrity of the government." From Washington's viewpoint, however, pushing Fahd and family down the fast track to Westernization and democratization is a likely prescription for a Shah-like disaster. Swift liberalizations could easily stir religious extremists to revolt. "If there's an internal threat to the kingdom," says a U.S. expert on Saudi Arabia, "it's from fundamentalists on the right, not liberalizers...
...elephant without a shock to the system." That is especially so now that the affair is out in the open. In the past the Saudis insisted on an "over the horizon" policy toward the U.S. -- they wanted protection but preferred that it be invisible. Faced with Saddam's legions, Fahd quickly < changed his mind. Even as U.S. Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney flew to Riyadh immediately after the invasion of Kuwait, Fahd conferred with key royals and decided to accept American troops if Cheney made a convincing case. When the Defense Secretary said President Bush was prepared to help defend...
...decisively into the Western camp, the gulf crisis has forced the Saudis to rethink relations with their fellow Arabs. According to Western diplomats, Riyadh has decided to financially squeeze the P.L.O., once a big recipient of Saudi largesse, as punishment for its support of Saddam. Yasser Arafat, whom King Fahd dislikes anyway, has asked three times to visit the kingdom but has been turned away. Angered by King Hussein's vacillations on the gulf crisis, King Fahd has refused calls from the Jordanian monarch, who also ranks high on the Saudi dole list. By refusing to condemn Saddam, the Yemenites...
Whatever the realignments in foreign policy, Fahd and his family will find them easier to swallow than the changes in the country's internal order that some Saudis are just beginning to push for. As Prince Salman's cool reaction to the businessmen in Riyadh suggests, the royals show no willingness to relinquish their monopoly on power. Over time, however, they may see little choice. "It is our tradition to accept authority," says a Saudi professional in Dhahran, adding significantly, "unless the legitimacy of authority is lost." Now that the once closed kingdom has been shocked into opening its doors...
...program in the Shi'ite region, which has always produced the lion's share of modern Saudi Arabia's oil wealth and received little in return. The situation further improved in 1985 when the brutal administration in the province of the bin Jaluwi family was replaced by Mohammed bin Fahd, a former businessman and a . son of the King. Still, Ashura continues to be a time when grievances surface: demonstrations were put down violently again in late 1985. Just last year scores of Shi'ites mourning the death of Khomeini were arrested and interrogated, some remaining in jail for nine...