Saudi Arabian King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz died on Thursday, less than a month after he was hospitalized with pneumonia. His half-brother, 79-year-old Crown Prince Salman, will succeed him.
The late king was the fifth in a line of brothers that ascended to the Saudi throne after their father, King Abdulaziz Ibn Saud, died in 1953. King Ibn Saud was the first monarch of modern Saudi Arabia. Since his death, Saudi rulership has been passed down among his many sons.
Abdullah’s successor, Crown Prince Salman, spent 48 years as governor of Riyadh Province. He oversaw an economic boom, built skyscrapers and brought in the western franchises that have come to characterize the city. He was also Saudi Arabia’s defense minister in 2011 and became crown prince in 2012. As the aging Salman takes the throne, he faces questions about the country’s oil policy and growing national security challenges as al-Qaeda in Yemen and ISIS in Iraq sandwich Saudi Arabia between two lethal threats.
Another issue involves how the line of succession will continue after Salman dies. Before his death, Abdullah made the unusual decision of ensuring there was a second-in-line to the throne. The king established the Allegiance Council in 2006, a group of 35 members of the royal family who meet and vote on a successor. Each branch of the Saudi family is represented in the council. As Abdullah’s health began to deteriorate, the council voted in with a three-quarters majority another one of Abdullah’s half-brothers, Prince Muqrin, as second in line to the throne.
Prince Muqrin is the last of Ibn Saud’s sons. After his death, rulership will be handed down to one of the grandsons, and a new era in Saudi leadership will commence. When power is handed down to the grandsons, one branch of the family will gain political power at the expense of the other branches, and this development could spark intra-family rivalries. King Abdullah hoped to limit some of the rivalry by establishing the Allegiance Council and established a precedent for its use by having the council choose King Salman’s successor.
Several of the princes are clear front-runners for the throne. One of the front-runners is Prince Miteb, one of the late king’s sons. He is currently the minister of Saudi Arabia’s National Guard, a position that Abdullah once held himself. Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, the son of Abdullah’s half-brother Prince Nayef, is the minister of interior and has garnered respect for how he has handled Saudi Arabia’s counter-terrorism program. Another front-runner is Prince Faisal, one of Salman’s sons, who is the former governor of Mecca and the current minister of education.
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