I've only heard about him being sick for the past couple of weeks. Abdullah's predecessor, Fahd, suffered a severely debilitating stroke in the mid-nineties, so Abdullah's been al Mudir ("the boss") for a long, long, long time. The crown prince may have been administering the kingdom's interests, but he was doing so under Abdullah's guidance. And Abdullah's outlived at least one, and maybe a couple of his crown princes (they're all members of the quickly aging cadre of Abdulaziz ibn Saud's sons). With the Saudis intentionally manipulating the energy market to exert pressure on Iran, Russia, Syria, and ISIS, and with Iran agitating the Houthis and trying to contain ISIS and exert influence in Iraq... There's just a lot going on in the region at the moment, Abdullah was sort of a known entity and a long term player, and his death will leave a vacuum that could make things interesting.King Abdullah's death also comes on the same day that Yemen's President and Prime Minister have resigned. Abdullah's successor, King Salman, is the second member of the highly influential "Sudairi Seven" to accede to the Saudi throne, the Sudairi Seven being a group of seven of ibn Saud's sons from his union with one of his wives, Hassa bint Ahmed al Sudairi. Abdullah's predecessor, Fahd, was the prior member of the Sudairi Seven who occupied the throne. (Notably, the Mauritanian dictator's attendance of King Fahd's funeral in 2005 resulted in a coup, the aftermath of which I followed with great interest for several years.) The relationships in the inner circle of the House of Saud play a significant role in the administration of the country's affairs. This includes the unorthodox division of the Saudi military, with includes the Saudi Arabian National Guard and the Royal Saudi Air Defense. According to Wikipedia, the undisputed and infallible source of all knowledge (citing the more reputable GlobalSecurity.org):
The Saudi Arabian National Guard is not a reserve but a fully operational front-line force, and originated out of Abdul Aziz’s tribal military-religious force, the Ikhwan. Its modern existence, however, is attributable to it being effectively Abdullah’s private army since the 1960s and, unlike the rest of the armed forces, is independent of the Ministry of Defense. The SANG has been a counterbalance to the Sudairi faction in the royal family; Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud, the minister of defense, is one of the so-called ‘Sudairi Seven’ and controls the remainder of the armed forces.There's a lot going on in the region at the moment (as I've alluded to recently), so it will be very interesting to see how this plays out.
ADDENDUM: It's also worth noting that in neighboring Oman, the subject of much of my study, His Majesty Sultan Qaboos - who has reigned as Oman's beloved "Renaissance Man" since July of 1970 - has been undergoing medical treatment in Germany for about seven months for an undisclosed illness that some sources believe to be colon cancer. Sultan Qaboos was only briefly married in the 1970's, produced no offspring, and has no siblings, so his succession has been the subject of regional speculation for years - and may have even motivated the formation of an Emirati spy ring in 2011. Sultan Qaboos appeared on Omani television in early november, looking somewhat fatigued but sounding healthy, to inform his people that while he would be missing the annual national holiday, that his doctors had given him an encouraging long-term prognosis. The Saudis are the big players in the region, but Oman plays an under-reported role as a mediator and intercessor, particularly between Iran and the GCC, or between Iran and the West. I hope that Sultan Qaboos enjoys many years of healthy and successful rule yet to come, as his role in the region has been of critical importance, and because turmoil in Oman could have a disproportionate impact on regional stability.
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