Saudi Arabia’s new king Salam has fits of dementia, which means that although he is very popular and known for doing wonders for Riyadh, he might not be sitting on the throne for very long.
“He can perform quite well for a few minutes, but then he gets muddled and goes off message,” according to Simon Henderson, an authority on Saudi Arabia at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, quoted by The Washington Post
King Salam is a half-brother to King Abdullah, who died late Thursday night. Salam ruled Riyadh for 48 years and is credited for making peace in the royal family and for turning the capital into a modern metropolis.
There are more secrets locked up in the royal palace than there is factual information, but all sources agree that King Salam suffers from dementia.
Considering that Saudi Arabia is the heavyweight in the Sunni Muslim world and in oil markets, that could be a big problem when it comes to determining the price of oil and the strategies to defeat the Islamic State and block Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon on its way to turning the entire Middle East into a fanatic Shia Islamic Caliphate.
If he can’t remember what the price of oil was yesterday, or which victim the ISIS beheaded today, there is bound to be a frenzy of back-palace politicking over who will take charge.
If the new king can remember that he has dementia, he might remove himself and clear the way for a new king from a younger generation of princes.