Leaders pay tribute to Fahd

2005-08-01 13:40

Cairo - Arab nations announced mourning periods, an Arab summit was abruptly postponed and Mideast leaders prepared on Monday to attend the funeral of Saudi Arabia's King Fahd, whose close ties with United States and control over the world's largest oil supplies made him one of the region's most influential figures.

Jordan - which, like many Arab nations, benefited from Saudi oil-financed investments - set a 40-day period of mourning.

Some officials started jetting off to Saudi Arabia to attend the late king's funeral in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, on Tuesday.

"Saudi Arabia has lost one of its dutiful sons, a leader among the most dear of its leaders and men," said Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who planned to attend Fahd's funeral.

Emergency

An emergency Arab summit that Mubarak had called in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik in the wake of the August 23 terrorist attacks there was postponed until later this month.

Among the first leaders heading to the summit was Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who, upon touching down in Sharm, heard of Fahd's death and ordered his plane to take off again and return to Yemen.

In Saudi Arabia, government offices remained open and oil pumping continued. Flags remained at full-staff because the green Saudi flag bears the central profession of faith in Islam - "There is no god but God and Muhammad is his prophet" - and lowering it would be seen as demeaning to the name of God.

Fahd was immediately succeeded on the throne by Abdullah, his half-brother and the crown prince who has been the kingdom's de facto ruler since a stroke incapacitated Fahd in 1995. The quick succession boosted the sense of stability.

Policies

"I don't think that the Saudi policies will change but the execution (of the policies) will be faster," said Turki al-Hamad, a prominent Saudi columnist and former political science professor. "I expect the pace of reform to be faster."

"There has been some sort of vacuum since 1995," he said. "Now King Abdullah will restore the stature that the kingdom had."

During his decade running Saudi Arabia, Abdullah has launched the first tentative political reforms - the country's first elections, held this year for local administrations - and he cracked down on al-Qaeda-linked extremists who launched deadly attacks inside the kingdom aimed at toppling the royal family.

Egypt, Syria and the Cairo-based Arab League announced three days of mourning.

- AP