THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: The appearance of a young Saudi prince, a grandson of the king, in a mobile phone advert has raised eyebrows in his country.
Prince Abdullah bin Meteb's lead role in a television advert for Saudi Arabia's second-biggest mobile phone operator Etihad Etisalat (Mobily), has sparked a debate among diplomats and Saudis alike on what it could mean for the absolute monarchy, which has always been secretive about its internal affairs.
"Why is a Saudi prince on a television commercial? And why did it have to be the grandson of the king and not someone else?" one Riyadh-based Western diplomat mused.
But others say the advert, starring Prince Abdullah, a professional rider, and his sponsorship deal with Mobily expose changes in the Saudi royal family in recent years as it becomes ever larger and younger.
There are several thousand Saudi princes, all descendants of the kingdom's founder King Abdulaziz, who died in 1953.
"They are getting closer to the public. The number of young princes eclipses the number of patriarchs in the Saudi monarchy which is getting more bourgeois in its lifestyle," said a Saudi analyst.
"Whether through their involvement in business life or in philanthropy, royalty is becoming part of the Saudi elite".
King Abdullah has repeatedly stated his commitment to modernising the world's largest oil exporter with political and economic reforms, but the closest the ageing monarch has come to reforming the monarchy itself was the inception in 2006 of a royal council to appoint future crown princes and kings. >>> | Sunday, April 18, 2010
KUWAIT TIMES: Saudi prince stars in TV commercial >>> | Monday, April 19, 2010
