Very civil

of an earlier King of Saudi Arabia, King Fahd bin Abdulaziz, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, to include broadcasters and other hangers on in the award of a rather fine memento of Op GRANBY, as we reticent Brits referred to DESERT STORM. 

I've never been a huge fan of absolute monarchy (few Marxists are) but it did offer some advantages over democracy. The timescale for radio  frequency allocations in the UK and the Federal Republic of Germany in the 1980s was measured in years if not decades. When the question of BFBS Saudi Arabia was mooted, King Fahd simply murmured his assent, and that was that. Power on, connect to studio, and we were live.