Saudi king returns to head off unrest with £23bn gift

Saudi King Abdullah returned home yesterday after a three-month absence and unveiled benefits for Saudis worth some $37 billion (£23bn) in an apparent bid to insulate the world's top oil exporter from protests sweeping the region.

The king, who had been convalescing in Morocco after back surgery in New York in November, stood as he descended from the plane in a special lift. He then sat in a wheelchair.

Hundreds of men in white robes performed a traditional Bedouin sword dance on carpets laid out at Riyadh airport for the 87-year-old monarch.

Abdullah left his ailing octogenarian half-brother, Crown Prince Sultan, in charge during his absence.

Before Abdullah arrived, state media announced an action plan to help lower- and middle-income people among the 18 million Saudi nationals. It includes pay rises to offset inflation, unemployment benefits and affordable family housing.

Saudi Arabia has so far escaped popular protests against poverty, corruption and oppression that have raged across the Arab world, toppling leaders in Egypt and Tunisia and spreading to Bahrain, linked to Saudi by a causeway. Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa was prominent among the princes on the tarmac when Abdullah flew in.

King Hamad freed about 250 political prisoners yesterday and has offered dialogue with protesters, mostly from Bahrain's Shiite majority, who demand more say in the Sunni-ruled island.

Riyadh would be worried if unrest in Bahrain, where seven people were killed and hundreds wounded last week, spread to its own disgruntled Shiite minority in the oil-rich east.

Hundreds of people have backed a Facebook call for a Saudi "day of rage" on Friday, 11 March, to demand an elected ruler, greater freedom for women and the release of political prisoners. Saudi analysts said the king might reshuffle his Cabinet to inject fresh blood and revive stalled reforms.

Saudi stability is of global concern. A key Western ally, it holds more than a fifth of world oil reserves.

The king announced no political reforms, such as local council polls demanded by opposition groups. Saudi Arabia has no elected parliament or parties and allows little public dissent.

"They are under pressure. They have to do something. We know Saudi Arabia is surrounded by revolutions of various types, and not just in poor countries, but in some such as Libya which are rich," said Mai Yamani, at London's Chatham House think tank.

"Basically what the king is doing is good, but it's an old message of using oil money to buy the silence, subservience and submission of the people," she said.

"The new generation of revolution is surrounding them from everywhere."

Mahmoud Sabbagh, 28, said he and 45 other young Saudi activists had sent the king a petition advocating more profound change, not just handouts. He listed the group's demands as "national reform, constitutional reform, national dialogue, elections and female participation".

Saudi Arabia holds more than $400bn in net foreign assets, but faces social pressures such as housing shortages and high youth unemployment.Ahmad al-Omran, who runs the popular Saudi Jeans blog, said on Twitter that the measures would benefit many people, but were equivalent to fighting the symptoms and ignoring the disease.

Mr Omran declared: "People don't revolt because they are hungry.

"People revolt because they want their dignity, because they want to govern themselves.

"Money won't solve our issues. We need true political and social reform. We need freedom, justice and dignity."