Abdullah, Crown Prince

▪ 2003

      Crown Prince Abdullah, the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, emerged as a key political decision maker concerning Arab regional and international affairs in 2002. Following the 1995 stroke that afflicted his half brother, King Fahd, Prince Abdullah began running the daily affairs of the country. Though Abdullah was perceived as committed to preserving Arab interests, his goal was also to maintain good relations with the West, especially the U.S. Even before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks by militant Islamists in the U.S., strains had appeared in Saudi-U.S. relations—the Saudis accused the new U.S. administration of Pres. George W. Bush of not being evenhanded in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. In 2001 Abdullah twice declined U.S. presidential invitations to visit Washington, D.C.

      The events of September 11 increased these strains, primarily because most of the suspects in the attack were Saudi nationals. Though Abdullah condemned these acts, Saudi-U.S. relations reached a low ebb in the first half of 2002. In a move to improve relations, Abdullah launched his proposal for an Saudi peace initiative. It was adopted during the Arab summit meeting held in Beirut, Leb., on March 27–28, 2002, as an Arab peace initiative. The plan called upon Israel to withdraw from the Palestinian and Syrian lands that it had occupied since 1967 and in return promised a full Arab normalization of relations with the Jewish state. He accepted a Saudi-Iraqi rapprochement, however, and publicly refused to support any attack on Iraq or the use of Saudi military facilities for such an act. The rift in Saudi-U.S. relations had mended by year's end after intensive diplomatic efforts.

      ʿAbdullah ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAziz was born in 1923. He was one of King Abd al-ʿAziz's 37 sons. As a result of his support of Crown Prince Faysal during Faysal's power struggle with King Saud, Abdullah was rewarded in 1962 with command of the National Guard, a force nearly as powerful as the Saudi army. He was appointed second deputy minister in 1975 by King Khalid after Faysal's assassination and was named crown prince and first deputy prime minister in 1982 by King Fahd. Abdullah, who continued to command the National Guard, served as regent in 1996 for a short period.

      Abdullah was perceived by many as a man of integrity and as part of the “reformers” camp that supported gradual change in Saudi Arabia. In early 2002 he placed the institution responsible for the education of females—which had been overseen by the Saudi religious establishment—under the control of the central government as part of the Ministry of Education, which was responsible for the education of both male and female students. In August he backed the Justice Ministry's decision to license lawyers in a bid to regulate the Islamic justice system. In addition, he seemed to favour reducing state subsidies to private enterprises and moving toward an economic privatization program. In September he called on the religious establishment to be less rigid and open up in order to better serve the populace.

Mahmoud Haddad

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