Alwaght- Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud health is rapidly deteriorating to the extent that he has lost the ability to speak, a new report reveals.
The Palestinian Manar online newspaper quoted an unnamed Arab official as saying on Wednesday the octogenarian monarch is suffering from periodic blackouts and inability to speak.
The unnamed source further said that the 80-year-old King Salman has lost awareness of his surroundings, prompting physicians to advise his sons to restrict their father’s public appearances in a bid hide the worsening conditions. The king is currently confined in one of the rooms of his palace.
Last October reports indicated that King Salman was take to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) section of King Faisal Specialist Hospital in the Saudi capital.
The Saudi ruler is thought to have Alzheimer’s or dementia and the kingdom is practically administered by his son, deputy crown prince Mohammad bin Salman who is jostling for power with Crown Prince Muhammad bin Nayef
According to witnesses, his exact state of dementia is a source of speculation but he is known to have held cogent conversations as recently as last October. He can also forget what he said minutes ago, or faces he has known all his life. This is typical of the disease.
Sources say that Saudi Arabia, which is currently invading Yemen and funding terrorist groups fighting in Syria, is engulfed in a power struggle of its own.
Several months ago a senior Saudi prince launched an unprecedented call for change in the country’s leadership, as it faces its biggest challenge in years in the form of war, plummeting oil prices and criticism of its management of Hajj.
The prince, one of the grandsons of the state’s founder, Abdulaziz Ibn Saud, told the Guardian that there is disquiet among the royal family – and among the wider public – at the leadership of King Salman, who acceded the throne in January 2015 following the death of his half brother, King Abdulaziz, at the age of 90.
The prince, who was not named for security reasons, wrote two letters calling for the king to be removed.
“The king is not in a stable condition and in reality the son of the king [Mohammed bin Salman] is ruling the kingdom,” the prince complained.
