Prince Khaled’s remarks were carried by the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) late yesterday. State media said in April that Prince Sultan had arrived in Morocco for rest and recreation after undergoing treatment in the United States, including unspecified surgery in February. Prince Sultan went to the United States for medical tests in November, then to Morocco for a prescribed convalescence before flying back to New York.
Saudi media at the time described treatment received by Prince Sultan, believed to be about 84, as successful but did not specify the ailment for which he was being treated.
In March, the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia appointed Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abdul-Aziz as second deputy prime minister, a promotion that would normally place him second in line to the throne after Sultan.
The position means he will run the kingdom, an absolute monarchy, when both the monarch and crown prince are away. Prince Sultan had an intestinal cyst removed in Saudi Arabia in 2005 and he visited the Swiss city of Geneva in April 2008 for what were described as routine tests.
