The king of Saudi Arabia, Abdullah Aziz bin Saud, is almost 90 years old.
FORBES: An Islamic Revolution In Saudi Arabia Would Send Oil To $300 A Barrel
Western governments and the al-Saud family have been in an awkward embrace since the 1930s.
The al-Saud believe if they oppose them, it will undermine their own legitimacy as rulers.
Perhaps, more pragmatically, he calculated that Wahhabism and the Saud family would sink or swim together.
In 1964, King Saud of Saudi Arabia was deposed and replaced by Prince Faisal.
Threatened by Iraq, the house of Saud tilted westward during the Gulf war and kept exports flowing.
The al-Saud family is vulnerable to intense internal pressure, especially from the ulema, or senior Muslim clerics.
Saudi Arabia's foreign minister, Saud Al Faisal, said the Syrian regime is pushing for a sectarian crisis.
There are 7, 000 princes in the Saud royal family, the result of multiple wives and lots of progeny.
FORBES: An Islamic Revolution In Saudi Arabia Would Send Oil To $300 A Barrel
Unfortunately for them, time moves a lot faster now than it did when Ibn Saud ruled the roost.
The Al Saud family is vulnerable to intense internal pressure, especially from the ulema, or senior Muslim clerics.
The man who founded the kingdom in 1932, King Abdul Aziz ibn Saud, fostered at least 45 sons.
The U.S. and the Al Saud family have been in an awkward embrace since the 1930s, when Harry St.
It is not just the Bush administration's closeness to the House of Saud (or to Israel) that raises eyebrows.
"The situation is now being brought under control, " police chief Saud Mirza said.
Mr Kechichian stresses the House of Saud's roots in a conservative, Islamic, tribal society but he does not disguise its difficulties.
Arab leaders as diverse as Libya's leader Muammar Gaddafi and Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal have decried South Sudan's independence.
However, the police chief involved, Aziz Saud, told CNN that he suggested an autopsy be done -- but that Bhutto's husband objected.
Like it or not, the U.S. may be betting big on the survival of the house of Saud for decades to come.
"Most Saudi ladies here need encouragement - there are lots of limitations, " says Shahad Al Saud, one of the interns at Glowork.
Like it or not, the West may be betting big on the survival of the house of Saud for decades to come.
Several factors have lately compelled elite opinion to reconsider its longstanding embrace of the House of Saud and the Kingdom's vast petrodollars.
Into this new and volatile mix we feel compelled to throw a couple of old facts: The House of Saud hews to Sunni Islam.
In a remarkable admission, Saudi Prince Talal bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud told the BBC that the country is in dire need of political reforms.
Jewel Uddin, Omar Mohammed Khan, Mohammed Hasseen, Anzal Hussain, Mohammed Saud and Zohaib Ahmed appeared via prison video link at Woolwich Crown Court in London.
Was he working for the House of Saud, America or himself?
ECONOMIST: Prince Bandar bin Sultan was an envoy like no other
The al-Saud family has been fighting to protect the flow of oil and dollars for decades--against conservative religious elements that have little sympathy for the West.
The pages are said to focus on Saudi Arabia, whose foreign minister, Prince Saud, made a hastily arranged visit to the White House on July 29th.
ECONOMIST: Is George Bush protecting or punishing Saudi Arabia?
In theory the Al Saud family's secretive Allegiance Council, composed of princes representing the lines of each of Abdel Aziz's sons, decides on matters of succession.
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