Is King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia Dead?

Hat tip Gates of Vienna

With Egypt in turmoil, it would a good idea in order to vacillate a smooth transition of power to hold back a announcement of King Abdullah's death.  In fact, only one news agency is reporting this.

Saudi Arabia's 86-year-old King Abdullah was discharged from a New York City hospital in good health after going through two back operations in December 2010. The king delegated the management of the affairs of the world’s largest oil supplier to his half-brother, Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz, during his absence.

King Abdullah talked with Obama about the situation in Egypt over the phone yesterday. Obama and the King got into a heated debate about their opinions of what Hosni Mubarak should do. After the phone call sources stated that King Abdullah was furious and then suffered a sudden heart attack.

Doctors ran to his resuce but were unable to save him. He was pronounced dead, but his death was not reported due to the sensative conditions that exist in the region. The Saudi Arabian government will reject this claim; but the ball is in their court to prove that he is alive.

The official Saudi release is quite different:

Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah is in "excellent" health and anxious to return home from convalescing in Morocco following surgery, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said Thursday.

"He's in excellent health, he's undergoing therapy," the prince said in Morocco.

"The doctors are suggesting a certain amount of therapy and he's doing twice as much as they tell him. ...he is his usual self, assured of what he can do and ready and looking forward to going back to work and going back home."

Earlier the Saudi embassy in Morocco, where King Abdullah arrived on January 22 after surgery in the United States, strongly denied rumours that the octogenarian monarch had died.

"I can assure that the health of King Abdullah is excellent and gives no cause for any concern," a senior embassy official told AFP.

The website www.islamtimes.org said the king had died of a heart attack the previous day after a heated telephone debate with US President Barack Obama on the situation in Egypt.

The Times of London reported on Thursday that in a "testy, personal" telephone call with Obama on January 29, the king had threatened to bankroll the Egyptian regime if the United States withdrew its aid.

He also warned Washington not to humiliate veteran Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, saying he should be allowed to stay on to oversee the transition, the Times added, citing a senior source in Riyadh confirmed by two other sources.

King Abdullah had flown to New York on November 22 and was operated on two days later for a debilitating herniated disc complicated by a haematoma that put pressure on his spine.

That surgery was declared a success, as was a second operation to repair several vertebrae.

The monarch's advanced age combined with his back hernia raised concerns about the future of Saudi Arabia, which has been ruled by the Al-Saud family since 1932.

The crown prince, Abdullah's half-brother Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz who has been defence minister since 1962, is 83 and has been slowed by what is believed to be cancer.

Little seen for the past two years, Sultan flew home from Morocco on November 21 to assume control of the royal government in Abdullah's absence.

Prince Nayef, 77, is the king's half-brother and is third in line to the Saudi throne. He was appointed second deputy prime minister in March 2009.

Morocco is a favourite holiday destination for Saudi royals who own private palaces here.

So is he alive or is he dead?  Are the Saudis hiding the truth in order to secure power and prevent the riots that effected Lebanon, Tunisia, and Egypt.  Or is this a false rumor?  If he is dead will President Obama bow down to the successor?  Probably.