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Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud
(Reuters/Brendan Smialowski)
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Abdullah
was the powerful U.S. ally who joined Washington's fight against al-Qaida and
sought to modernize the ultraconservative Muslim kingdom with incremental but
significant reforms, including nudging open greater opportunities for women.
More
than his guarded and hidebound predecessors, Abdullah assertively threw his
oil-rich nation's weight behind trying to shape the Middle East. His priority
was to counter the influence of rival, mainly Shiite Iran wherever it tried to
make advances. He and fellow Sunni Arab monarchs also staunchly opposed the
Middle East's wave of pro-democracy uprisings, seeing them as a threat to
stability and their own rule.
He
backed Sunni Muslim factions against Tehran's allies in several countries, but
in Lebanon for example, the policy failed to stop Iranian-backed Hezbollah from
gaining the upper hand. And Tehran and Riyadh's colliding ambitions stoked
proxy conflicts around the region that enflamed Sunni-Shiite hatreds — most
horrifically in Syria's civil war, where the two countries backed opposing sides.
Those conflicts in turn hiked Sunni militancy that returned to threaten Saudi
Arabia.
The
late king's brother, Salman, 79, has been announced as the new ruler of the
kingdom.
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Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud (Reuters/Jacques Brinon)
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