Word: saud
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...avalanche of petrodollars is confronting the Saudis with a profound dilemma: how to preserve the country's Islamic identity and conservative values in the face of a headlong, frequently pell-mell rush of development. The men who face this problem are the members of the royal House of Saud, which has ruled the kingdom of Saudi Arabia since 1932 and which, perhaps like no other dynasty in the world, has turned the running of a country into a family business. All key decision-making positions are held by the royal family which consists of an estimated 5000 princes...
...current trouble is particularly frustrating and ominous. This marks the first time in the long and variegated history of modern Middle Eastern warfare that the U.S. has neither diplomatic relations with, nor political leverage on, either of the combatants. Commented Saudi Arabia's Foreign Affairs Minister, Prince Saud al Faisal: "The almost total absence of any U.S. sway with the parties directly involved in such a dangerous situation is sobering to say the least...
...west, what is widely seen as Israel's intransigence emboldens radicals, undercuts moderates and enrages almost everyone in the Arab world. To the south, the memory of last year's attack by zealous dissidents on the Sacred Mosque in Mecca still sends shudders through the House of Saud and the monarchies that rule the gulfs ministates. In the waters of the gulf itself, a Soviet guided-missile cruiser and its frigate escort have replaced the Shah's navy in patrolling the shipping channel through the 40-mile-wide Strait of Hormuz. The U.S.S.R. now maintains...
...their lip service to international law and justice, the ministers virtually ignored Iran's illegal and inhumane detention of 53 U.S. citizens. Only through the efforts of Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Prince Saud al Faisal was a phrase inserted urging Tehran to solve the hostage question "in the spirit of Islam." The delegates denounced Washington for the hostage rescue attempt, which the resolution describes as "the recent American military aggression in Iran...
...heart of Saudi Arabia's problem is the unfinished task of creating a modern state out of a cluster of Bedouin tribes that were unified by Abdul Aziz (Ibn Saud) under the present kingdom in 1932. The royal leadership is worried by the growing polarization of Saudi society; thousands of young Saudis return from the West every year with university degrees, only to chafe under a puritanical, semifeudal system designed to appease the disparate desert tribes. "When the graduates come back, they are given nice jobs with plenty of money," remarks one educated Saudi. "But how long they will...