On Monday, September 13, the Associated Press and other media outlets reported that the Obama administration will ask Congress for approval to sell Saudi Arabia up to $60 billion worth of high-tech fighter aircraft and helicopters, with an option of $30 billion in naval armaments to follow. Because of the Iranian threat, the deal is expected to be approved, since it will give the Saudis military striking capacity across the Gulf region.

If consummated, the sale comes at a moment when Saudi society is in flux, facing heightened contradictions. Saudi king Abdullah, who has made various attempts at social and political reform, remains isolated and opposed by many of his retrogressive family members and the official Wahhabi clerics. Many of the young are turning away visibly from the authority of the monarchy and the clerics.  The majority of Saudi citizens are fearful that the 86-year-old king will die soon.  Abdullah could be replaced by his designated successor and half-brother Crown Prince Sultan, who is also in his 80s and ill, and then by Prince Nayef, the most rigid and anti-Western of the heirs to Ibn Sa’ud, founder of the modern Saudi state.