Saudi King Abdullah issued a royal decree Sept. 2 extending the terms of Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the secretary-general of the National Security Council (NSC) and former ambassador to the United States, and of Saad bin Nasser al-Sudeiri, the adviser to the interior minister, by another four years. The move appears to be the king's way of granting the Sudeiri faction of the royal family additional staying power to avoid trouble with the royal succession down the line. Prince Bandar is a member of Saudi Arabia's powerful Sudeiri clan. His father, Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdul-Aziz, who also holds the positions of defense and aviation minister and inspector general of the armed forces, is one of the so-called "Sudeiri Seven" — a faction of influential full brother senior princes in the House of Saud. Both Prince Bandar and his brother Prince Khaled (a prominent general who currently serves as deputy defense minister) are part of the second generation of Sudeiri leaders seeking to maintain their clout in the royal family. Crown Prince Sultan's health has worsened severely in the past year, and it appears that he will not live to succeed his older half-brother, King Abdullah. With the line of succession in question, King Abdullah understands he has a limited amount of time to smooth out the bumps in the succession process and prevent a major power struggle. The next four to five years will be particularly critical due to the advanced age and deteriorating health of the most senior ruling elites. Because the crown prince position leads to the throne, the question of who takes Sultan's place is an important one. The next senior-most brother in line for the crown prince post is Interior Minister Prince Naif, a right-wing religious hard-liner who is also a member of the Sudeiri clan. Given Crown Prince Sultan's recent decision to grant Naif the additional post of deputy prime minister it appears that for now, Naif has a good chance of becoming Saudi Arabia's next crown prince. By granting Prince Bandar a four-year extension in his term as NSC chairman, the king is reassuring the Sudeiri clan that its clout remains intact. King Abdullah's bold attempt to formalize the succession process through an untested Allegiance Council has already made many of the Sudeiri clan members extremely uncomfortable and suspicious of the king's intentions to marginalize their role. The king is attempting a complex balancing act, but in keeping the Sudeiris calm, he runs a better chance of conducting a more orderly succession.