(AhlulBayt News Agency) - Saudi Arabia's elderly King Abdullah will undergo surgery on Friday to stabilise vertebrae in his spinal column, the kingdom's royal court said in a statement carried by the state news agency.
The king, thought to be around 86 or 87, underwent surgery on his back in New York in November after a blood clot complicated a slipped spinal disc. The kingdom's health minister said afterward that his health was "very reassuring".
"King Abdullah...will undergo an operation on the afternoon of December 3 to stabilise some vertebrae in his spinal cord and complete the earlier surgery he underwent," the court statement said.
It did not say where the new surgery would take place, but there has been no official word of the king leaving the United States.
A frail Crown Prince Sultan, who has health problems of his own, has returned from abroad to govern the world's largest oil exporter, while Abdullah is away for an unspecified period.
King Abdullah, who came to power in 2005, is the sixth leader of Saudi Arabia, whose political stability is of regional and global concern. It controls more than a fifth of the world's crude oil reserves, is a vital U.S. ally in the region, a major holder of dollar assets and home to the biggest Arab bourse.
With both Abdullah and Sultan in their 80s, the next in line would be Interior Minister Prince Nayef, at a comparatively youthful 76. Nayef would need the approval of Saudi Arabia's "Allegiance Council" to become king.
Abdullah appointed his half-brother Nayef second deputy prime minister in 2009 in a move that analysts said will secure the leadership in the event of serious health problems afflicting the king and crown prince and that also will improve Nayef's chances of one day being king.
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