The powers of Mohammed bin Salman, crown prince of Saudi Arabia, were reinforced on Tuesday after being appointed by King Salman as prime minister of the kingdom.
In Saudi Arabia, the king is head of state and president of the Council of Ministers, but the monarch issued several royal decrees on Tuesday, announcing the amendment, also restructuring the Council of Ministers, which from now on will be chaired by the Crown Prince.
Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom’s de facto leader, had previously been deputy prime minister and defense minister.
In another of the decrees, King Salman also announced the appointment of another of his sons, Khalid bin Salman, as Defense Ministerafter having previously held the position of deputy minister of that portfolio, the Saudi Gazette reported.
The interior, foreign affairs and energy ministries were not affected by the government reshuffle, according to the royal decree.
Prince Mohammed, who turned 37 in August, he is in the front line to succeed his father as the head of the largest economy in the Arab world.
Known as MBS, the crown prince is expected to be by far the youngest member of the Saudi dynasty to ascend the throne, following the death of his father.
Since his appointment as crown prince in 2017, MBS has de facto led this oil powerhouse.
In recent years, rumors have increased about the health of the 86-year-old king, who has been hospitalized twice this year, the last in May, according to information provided by the average.
Mohammed bin Salman has rocked Saudi Arabia with sweeping reforms while brutally cracking down on the opposition, but remains a key international interlocutor.
Before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, the Saudi kingdom, and the crown prince in particular, tried to overcome the diplomatic isolation imposed by most Western countries following the 2018 murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at his country’s consulate in Istanbul.
US President Joe Biden even declassified a report that concluded MBS had “validated” the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, a critic of power, a claim Saudi authorities have consistently denied.
But since the Russian invasion and rising energy prices, Biden, former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and other Western leaders have visited the kingdom, one of the world’s largest oil exporters, to try to convince Riyadh to extract more oil.
Source: Observadora
