King Fahd’s health is improving, more than two weeks after the ruler of oil giant Saudi Arabia was taken to hospital, the interior minister said.
The 83-year-old king was taken to hospital on May 27 with pneumonia, fever and respiratory complications. Fahd’s hospitalization has caused concern abroad and in the Gulf state, which has been battling al Qaida militants for two years.
“The news is good and reassuring and his Majesty’s health is continuously improving and, God willing, his stay in hospital will not be long,” Interior Minister Prince Nayef said late on Sunday, without specifying when the monarch would be discharged.
“I think now it is only about completing medical procedures,” he said, but did not elaborate. His comments were carried by the official Saudi Press Agency.
Nayef’s reassurances were the first by an official since June 6 when Crown Prince Abdullah said the monarch’s condition was steadily improving. Late last month, officials said Fahd may leave hospital within days.
Continuing concern
Some diplomats said they remained concerned about the health of the ruler of the world’s biggest oil exporter.
A stroke incapacitated Fahd in 1995 and Crown Prince Abdullah, 81, has since been in charge of the daily running of the kingdom. Abdullah is next in line to become king.
Fahd became king in June 1982, at the peak of a petrodollar boom that transformed Saudi Arabia from a desert country into a global economic power.
