Saudi Arabia is not immune to change

Although King Abdullah implemented a series of reform, included a record $219 billion budget to be spent on welfare and infrastructures, the Guardian stressed that the writing is on the wall.

"King Abdullah, who will be 90 this year, has just appointed his son, Prince Miteb, as head of a newly created National Guard ministry, one of a series of measures designed to pave the path of the succession. But the Saudi gerontocracy would be foolish to think the worst has been averted," it added.

And indeed that the sentencing in March of two  prominent human rights activists – 10 years for charges which included sedition and giving inaccurate information to the media – were not well received by the public.

Salman al-Odah' a prominent cleric wrote on the matter on his open letter, "There is smoke and dust on the horizon. We are justified in worrying about what lies beyond. If the security agencies tighten their grip, it will only worsen the quagmire we are in and cut off all hope of reform."

Pointing to al-Saud succession issues, the Guardian wrote, "The House of Saud is far from united itself. The line of succession which passed along the 20 surviving sons of King Abdul-Aziz al-Saud, five of whom became king, is rapidly running out of road, as ageing heirs drop off their gilded perch before they can inherit the crown. The next in line, Crown Prince Salman, 77 this year, stood in for King Abdullah at the last meeting of the Gulf Co-operation Council, but his contribution was limited. He is thought to be suffering from dementia. But this is unlikely to mean that the throne passes to the youngest of Abdul Aziz's sons, Prince Muqrin, as the success on is adjudicated on other opaque grounds by a body known as the Allegiance Council."