RIYADH: Dignitaries and leaders from around the world were to arrive in Saudi Arabia yesterday to offer their condolences to its new King Salman, a day after the death of his half-brother King Abdullah.
British Prime Minister David Cameron, Prince Charles and French President Francois Hollande were among the first leaders expected while US Vice-President Joe Biden was to arrive in the coming days.
Abdullah was a cautious reformer who led the Gulf state through a turbulent decade in a region shaken by the Arab Spring uprisings and Islamic extremism.
He died early Friday aged about 90 after being hospitalised with pneumonia.
Since he took the throne in 2005, Riyadh has been a key Arab ally of Washington, last year joining the coalition carrying out air strikes against the Islamic State jihadist group. World leaders praised the king as a key mediator between Muslims and the West, but campaigners criticised his rights record and urged Salman to do more to protect freedom of speech and women’s rights.
Gulf rulers, and leaders including Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, were among those who attended Abdullah’s traditionally simple funeral at Riyadh’s Imam Turki bin Abdullah mosque.
The late king’s body, wrapped in a cream-coloured shroud, was borne on a litter by members of the royal family wearing red-and-white checked headgear.
The body was quickly moved to nearby Al-Od public cemetery and buried, in a grave marked only by a book-sized plain grey stone.
Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas and Malaysia’s Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak arrived later to deliver condolences, as did Iraqi President Fuad Masum. Masum had met with Abdullah last November, helping to repair long-strained relations between the neighbours.
In the evening hundreds of Saudis queued to enter a royal palace where they rubbed cheeks and kissed the hands of their new leaders, in a symbolic pledge of allegiance.
President Barack Obama paid tribute to Abdullah as a “valued” ally as the State Department indicated cooperation between Washington and Riyadh would continue.
Salman pledged Friday to keep the conservative, oil-rich Muslim kingdom on a steady course and moved to cement his hold on power.
In his first public statement as king, Salman, 79, vowed to “remain, with God’s strength, attached to the straight path that this state has walked since its establishment”.
He called for “unity and solidarity” among Muslims and vowed to work in “the defence of the causes of our nation”.
Moving to clear uncertainty over the transition to the next generation, he named his nephew, Interior Minister Prince Mohammed Nayef, 55, as second in line to the throne behind Crown Prince Moqren, 69.
That helps to solidify control by his Sudayri branch of the royal family. Salman also appointed one of his own sons, Prince Mohammed, as defence minister of the world’s leading oil exporter. — AFP