A London-based analyst said that the death of Saudi Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz will have devastating consequences for the Al Saud dynasty and fuel the ongoing power struggle among the royal family as tension and unrests grow in the Eastern parts of the country.
The death of the crown prince - the half-brother of the ailing Saudi King Abdullah - was announced by Saudi state TV on Saturday.
Sultan, who was 85 and had been suffering from colon cancer, was the kingdom's deputy prime minister and minister of defense and aviation. He underwent surgery in New York in February 2009 for an undisclosed illness and spent nearly a year abroad recuperating in the United States and at a palace in Agadir, Morocco.
Jaffar Hessabi stated that Sultan's death will further widen the existing differences inside the royal family.
"Since long time ago, a great dispute has been underway for starting a hereditary monarchy to transfer power to the younger members of the al-Saud family.
"Hence, the news of Sultan bin Abdul Aziz's death will intensify this dispute," the analyst stated.
The Saudi ruler has so far picked his crown prince from the al-Saud family, including his aged brothers and nephews and not from his sons or grandsons.
Hessabi pointed to the unpopularity of the Saudi dynasty among the people both inside Saudi Arabia and in the region, and stressed that the ongoing conditions in Saudi Arabia indicate the start of an uprising against the country's rulers similar to the popular uprisings in the other Arab states.
source : http://abna.ir
