Saudi Arabia's Ailing Gerontocracy

"... The prospect of a power struggle breaking out in the kingship scramble is more likely to happen when the House of Saud has to choose its leader from among King Abdulaziz’s 19 grandsons. That historic choice is still at least several years off, maybe even a full decade away. ..... As the murky process of leadership change unfolds, Saudi watchers are focusing particularly on the competition between the remaining elderly sons of King Abdulaziz with some claim to the kingship and his younger, up-and-coming grandsons who hold senior positions under their fathers in the key ministries of defense and interior and in the Royal National Guard. They sit together on the new 35-man Allegiance Council that King Abdullah set up in 2006 to help select future crown princes.  The question is whether King Abdullah set a precedent this November when he relinquished his command of the Royal National Guard—a post he had held since 1962—to his own son, Prince Miteb, 57, rather than to his brother and long-serving deputy, Prince Badr, 77 ...."