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SAUDI ARABIA - The Aramco Political Leadership.

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With the functions of the old and ailing King Fahd now limited to briefly greeting important foreign guests and signing royal decrees when he has regained his lucidity, the day-to-day running of the kingdom is in the hands of an "equal" partnership between Princes Abdullah and Sultan. The government has been officially notified in the past four years that no one from the royal family down is allowed to make a public statement without prior authorisation from this partnership. But since mid-2001, Prince Abdullah has often acted unilaterally and, in view of the gravity of the people's anger with the US over Washington's bias for Israel, Sultan has kept quiet. Previously, and for many years, Sultan and Abdullah used to engage in complex power struggles over the succession issue, Saudi dependence on or subservience to the US, and several other matters.

After major combat in the US-led war in Iraq ended in late April 2003, a group of liberals in a rare move demanded reform from Prince Abdullah. The group included Shiites from the Eastern Province. Soon after a government announcement on Oct. 13 that half of the members of municipal councils will be elected, militants demanding wider political and economic reforms demonstrated in Riyadh on Oct. 14 and thus - for the first time since the 1960s - openly defied an official ban on such manifestations.

As many as 150 people were arrested and the...