WASHINGTON — The death of the heir to the Saudi throne has cast a spotlight on the aging leadership of the key U.S. ally amid the upheaval of the Arab Spring rebellions in the Middle East.
Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud was at least 80 when he died Friday after years of failing health. He had been the designated successor to Saudi King Abdullah, 87, who has been hospitalized several times in recent years.
Sultan is likely to be succeeded by Prince Nayef, the current interior minister, who is in his late 70s. Like King Abdullah, Nayef has opposed Islamic militants, but he also favored ultraconservative traditions such as the country’s law prohibiting women from driving.
In recent years, U.S. relations with Saudi Arabia, Washington’s most important Arab partner in the region, have grown more strained. And the popular uprisings that have swept through the region this year have exacerbated tensions, with the Saudis seeing their own stability threatened by the unrest.
Although Sultan was thought to have been relatively pro-U.S., and Nayef somewhat more critical, experts do not attribute the shift to Nayef’s growing power.
