Special to WorldTribune.com
WASHINGTON — The United States is said to have disclosed that Saudi King Abdullah was dying.
Diplomatic sources said the administration of President Barack Obama relayed a photograph that showed Abdullah with a breathing tube, Middle East Newsline reported.
The sources said the photograph was taken by White House personnel during Obama’s meeting with the Saudi king outside Riyad on March 28.
[See Also: Saudi opposition reports King Abdullah has terminal lung cancer]
“The Saudis specifically did not want any photograph that showed Abdullah with the tube,” a source said. “But there was a White House photographer that took the picture for what he said was history.”
The photograph was said to have been relayed to members of the White House press corps. Within a day, an image of the Saudi king with the breathing tube was sent to the Saudi opposition.
“The photograph was a message by the White House that Abdullah is going down and so is the rest of the family,” the source said.
The sources said the Saudi royal court had demanded that no photographs
be taken of Abdullah with the breathing tube. They said the royal court
suggested either long shots or close-ups after the king had concealed the
tube under his cloak.
The photograph of Abdullah was released after Obama and the king failed
to make any headway in the late-night meeting. It marked the first visit by
Obama to Saudi Arabia in his more than five years as president. Later, the
White House website removed all but one photograph of Obama’s meeting with
the Saudi king.
[See Also: The difference a day makes: How Saudi students in the U.S. dealt with April 15, 2013]
The sources said the White House limited Obama’s visit to Saudi Arabia
to several hours after his advisers determined that the meeting with
Abdullah would be unsuccessful. They said the administration, amid its
rapproachment with Iran, has sought to isolate Saudi Arabia while wooing
other members of the Gulf Cooperation Council, particularly Oman, Qatar and
the United Arab Emirates.
On April 17, a Shi’ite-aligned opposition research group quoted U.S.
sources as saying that Abdullah was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. The
Washington-based Institute for Gulf Affairs posted an unattributed
photograph of the king with a breathing tube next to his son, Prince Mitab.
The institute said Abdullah was seen with the tube during his meeting with
Obama as well as on April 4.
“I received from an official American source [information] that King
Abdullah has cancer and two to six months to live,” institute director
Ali Al Ahmed said on Twitter on March 31.
Sources: White House deliberately leaked photo of ill Saudi King with breathing tube added by World Tribune on
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