Yamani by Jeffrey Robinson

Author:Jeffrey Robinson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: oil, ronald reagan, nixon, nyu, petroleum, saudi arabia, saddam, nat king cole, thatcher, jimmy carter, harvard, kissinger, opec, carlos the jackal, king fahd, oil embargo, the cia, the oil weapon, the shah of iran, yassir arafat
Publisher: Jeffrey Robinson

Because Saudi Arabia is such a highly complex society, the key to ruling the country is not, as some people profess, in somehow stitching together the various interest groups and factions. Rather it lies in the less easily clarified talent of keeping those interest groups and factions from ripping apart.

Government is therefore a delicate balancing act.

Generally speaking, Khaled represented the traditionalists, with the roots of his power base in the tribal areas. Fahd was known as a champion of the technocrats and, at least in Saudi terms, a progressive.

Unfortunately, as one journalist spelled out at the time, “It is Fahd who has inherited the problem. But he hasn’t inherited the talent to deal with it.”

Not that there was open dissension among the two factions in the royal family. Instead the royal family conducts its affairs with a somewhat mysterious oriental discipline. Decisions are privately argued out among themselves, behind the shut doors of their palaces. They rarely if ever hang their laundry out to dry in public. Shooting one radical nephew and publicly beheading another doesn’t count. In 1958, when King Saud bankrupted the treasury through sheer extravagance and Faisal was assigned the task of rebuilding the state and Saud eventually left in exile and everybody pretty much knew the whole story, that was a rare exception.

Now, with Faisal dead and Khaled on the throne, there was obvious jockeying for position. Khaled was devout and well loved. But he’d had open heart surgery in the United States in January 1972, and was still in frail health. Believing that Khaled was not well enough to rule for very long, the Al Fahd moved as one block to take control.

“Watching Yamani”, the British Sunday Times said in mid-April 1975, “will tell us what is happening between Fahd and the king.”

They pointed out that, over the previous year, Yamani’s relationship with Fahd had become strained. “Fahd doesn’t appear to like Yamani’s freewheeling attitude with the western press. Yamani’s power lay in the complete confidence shown him by Faisal. Neither this, nor his dazzling success endeared him to the Saudi establishment.”

Maybe that was why, they theorized, “Throughout the past year Yamani went out of his way to ingratiate himself with Fahd.”

Maybe that was why, as so many Saudi watchers started to agree, Yamani’s position had become uncertain.

The announcement that he’d be replaced was expected within a matter of weeks. When it didn’t happen, the pundits remained confident. They assured anyone who asked, it will later this year. When it still didn’t happen, they said, but it will one day soon.

That day turned out to be more than 11 years away.

Yet, James Akins asserts, it wasn’t quite so obvious to him that Yamani would be the first to go. “He’s extremely clever. Extremely intelligent. He knows his field very well. And before the king was assassinated he’d made his peace with the other members of the royal family. Fahd and Abdullah (Crown Prince under Fahd). When the king was assassinated there really wasn’t any question of getting rid of him.

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