Word: feisal
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Bowing to longstanding Saudi demands earlier this year, Aramco signed a new deal with reform-minded Prince Feisal, who has replaced ailing King Saud as the nation's de facto ruler. Aramco agreed to pay the Saudis $160 million in retroactive extra royalties and to surrender in stages its original 673,000-sq.-mi. concession, until all that will be left in 1992 will be a 20,000-sq.-mi. area. With the money and the land, the Prince intends to set up a nationalized oil company. Aramco keenly regrets losing its concessions but figures to keep its best...
...heart ailments. Often they seem to be aggravated by the swirling political events in his desert capital of Riyadh. After the Yemen rebellion last fall threatened the stability of his throne, Saud's health was so upset that he turned the government over to his able brother, Prince Feisal, and flew to Switzerland for treatment...
While Saud spent weeks convalescing in Paris and on the Riviera, Prince Feisal was using a new broom at home. He fired all of Saud's sons and aides who held government posts, and cut royal family allowances a whopping 20%. In a series of speeches, Feisal told wide-eyed citizens: "With God's help, you and your government are going the right way. Education, medical care and social security are all completely free...
...relations, King Saud cautiously returned home last month. A few tribal delegations came to Riyadh to pay their respects. One, led by Deputy Premier Prince Khalid, another of Saud's 39 brothers, handed the King an ultimatum. Tactfully but plainly, the chieftains warned him not to interfere with Feisal or make any attempt again to wield power, at the risk of dethronement. They also demanded instant banishment of Saud's personal aide, Eid ben Salem, who rose from palace chauffeur to royal entrepreneur and became vastly rich in the process...
...carried them off to Vienna. At week's end King Saud was reportedly in an oxygen tent, responding to treatment for a duodenal ulcer. Doctors predicted recovery within a few weeks, but rumors still filtered through Vienna that Saud was in fact quite ill. Should Saud die, Prince Feisal will become King in name as well as in fact...