Saudi crown prince for surgery in New York

Riyadh, July 07: Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz has been operated on by US doctors in a New York hospital, according to a Saudi envoy.

“He is in New York; he has been operated on,” said an official with the Kingdom’s general consulate in the major US city on Wednesday without elaborating, AFP reported.

The nature of Prince Sultan’s illness has never been revealed, but analysts and diplomats widely suspect it to be cancer.

In his eighties, the crown prince has served as Saudi Arabia’s defense minister for the past five decades.

In June, the official Saudi Press Agency reported that Sultan would make a private visit to the US, during which he would undergo a medical examination.

In November 2010, Saudi King Abdullah also underwent an operation at New York Presbyterian Hospital.

The illness of the 87-year-old King Abdullah and the health of the crown prince have fueled speculations over the potential successor to the Saudi Arabia’s monarch.

Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz, Sultan’s full brother and considered second in line to the throne, has undergone unspecified medical treatment in the past 20 months as well.

Many analysts expect a major power struggle for the Saudi throne as all potential candidates are elderly and ailing.

——Agencies