Saudi Arabia has appointed Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as the country’s inaugural Prime Minister on Tuesday.
Announcement came amid major restructuring in the Saudi Council of Ministers – the country’s highest decision-making body after the royal court.
As Prime Minister, Prince Salman will lead the Council of Ministers.
As part of a wider restructuring of the 35-member council, Prince Dr. Mansoor bin Mutaib bin Abdulaziz Al Saud has been named Minister of State. Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud as Minister of Energy. Prince Turki bin Muhammad bin Fahd bin Abdulaziz Al Saud as Minister of State. Prince Abdulaziz bin Turki bin Faisal bin Abdulaziz Al Saud as Minister of Sports.
3ـ صاحب السمو الملكي الأمير / عبدالعزيز بن سلمان بن عبدالعزيز آل سعود وزيراً للطاقة.
— واس الأخبار الملكية (@spagov) September 27, 2022
4ـ صاحب السمو الملكي الأمير / تركي بن محمد بن فهد بن عبدالعزيز آل سعود وزير دولة.
5ـ صاحب السمو الملكي الأمير / عبدالعزيز بن تركي بن فيصل بن عبدالعزيز آل سعود وزيراً للرياضة.#واس
Prince Mohammed, who has already been the de facto ruler of the kingdom for many years, previously served as deputy prime minister under King Salman as well as defense minister.
He is being replaced as the defense minister by his younger brother Khalid bin Salman, who was the deputy defense minister.
The heads of other key ministries, including interior, foreign and energy, remain in place, according to King Salman’s royal decree published by the official Saudi Press Agency.
Prince Mohammed, who turned 37 last month, has been the first in line to succeed his father since 2017.
Saudi Arabia has for years sought to quell speculation about the health of the 86-year-old king, who has ruled the world’s biggest oil exporter since 2015.
In 2017, he dismissed reports and growing speculation that the king was planning to abdicate in favor of Prince Mohammed.
According to state media, King Salman has been hospitalized twice this year, most recently for a week-long stay in May that included tests including a colonoscopy.
Obvious changes
Prince Mohammed became defense minister in 2015, an important step in the rapid consolidation of power.
In that role, he has overseen Saudi Arabia’s military activities in Yemen, where the kingdom leads a coalition supporting the internationally recognized government in the fight against Iran-linked Houthi rebels.
He has also become the public face of the reform agenda known as Vision 2030.
Changes include giving women the right to drive, opening cinemas, welcoming foreign tourists, defanging the religious police and hosting pop stars and high-profile heavyweight fights and other sporting events.
Yet he has also jailed critics and, while purging the country’s elite, threatened to detain nearly 200 princes and businessmen at Riyadh’s Ritz-Carlton hotel in a 2017 anti-corruption crackdown that strengthened his grip on power.
He gained international notoriety for the 2018 murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Istanbul consulate.
Last year, US President Joe Biden declared an intelligence report that found Prince Mohammed had approved the operation against Khashoggi, a claim rejected by Saudi officials.
But rising energy prices due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine prompted several Western leaders to travel to Saudi Arabia to appeal for increased oil production, notably then-British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Biden himself, who had previously promised Make the Saudi leadership a “pariah”.
German Chancellor Olaf Schulz became the latest major leader to visit the kingdom last weekend.
