JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) - King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia will have surgery on his back on Monday, medical sources said.
The monarch, who is in his late 80s, went into hospital late on Sunday for an operation to tighten the ligaments around his third vertebra, the state news agency SPA reported.
King Abdullah's health is a matter of keen interest in the conservative Islamic kingdom, where the system of politics is strictly hierarchical and doubts linger over the ruling family's long term succession plans.
He had two rounds of back surgery in the United States last year after suffering a herniated disc, leading to a three-month recuperation period outside the kingdom.
King Abdullah's health is a matter of keen interest in the conservative Islamic kingdom, where the system of politics is strictly hierarchical and doubts linger over the ruling family's long term succession plans.
His heir is Crown Prince Sultan, who is in his mid 80s and has been in the United States since June for medical treatment.
The next-in-line after Sultan is widely assumed to be Prince Nayef, the interior minister since 1975, who is in his late 70s and has a reputation as more conservative than his elder brothers the king and crown prince.
Unlike in European monarchies, the line of succession does not move directly from father to eldest son, but has moved down a line of brothers born to the kingdom's founder King Abdulaziz Ibn Saud, who died in 1953.
(Reporting By Asma Alsharif; Writing By Angus McDowall)
