Saudi Arabia’s powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has been appointed prime minister, a post traditionally held by the king, in a government reshuffle announced on Tuesday.
Prince Mohammed, who has been the de facto ruler of the kingdom for several years, previously served as deputy prime minister under King Salman and as defense minister.
He will be replaced as defense minister by his younger brother, Khalid bin Salman, who was deputy defense minister.
The heads of other critical ministries, including interior, foreign and energy ministries, remained in place, according to a royal decree from King Salman released by the official Saudi press agency.
Prince Mohammed, who turned 37 last month, has become the first in line to succeed his father as king since 2017.
For years, Saudi Arabia has been trying to quell speculation about the health of the 86-year-old king, who has ruled the world’s largest oil exporter since 2015.
In 2017, it dismissed reports and mounting speculation that the king planned to abdicate in favor of Prince Mohammed.
King Salman has been hospitalized twice this year, most recently in May for a week that included tests including a colonoscopy, state media said.
– Major changes –
Prince Mohammed became defense minister in 2015, an important step in a rapid consolidation of power.
In that capacity, he has overseen Saudi Arabia’s military activities in Yemen, where the kingdom leads a coalition supporting the internationally recognized government in its fight against Iran-allied Houthi rebels.
He has also become the public face of a sweeping reform agenda known as Vision 2030.
Changes included granting women the right to drive, opening movie theaters, welcoming foreign tourists, dismantling the religious police, and hosting pop stars and high-profile heavyweight fights and other sporting events.
But he has also jailed critics and arrested and threatened some 200 princes and businessmen at Riyadh’s Ritz Carlton Hotel in a sweeping purge of the nation’s elite as he cracked down on corruption in 2017, cementing his power.
He gained worldwide notoriety for the 2018 assassination of dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul.
Last year, US President Joe Biden released an intelligence report that found Prince Mohammed had authorized the operation against Khashoggi, a claim Saudi authorities dispute.
But the spike in energy prices triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine prompted a number of Western leaders to travel to Saudi Arabia to appeal for an increase in oil production, most notably then-British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Biden himself, who were a Swallowing previous vows make the Saudi leadership a “pariah”.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz became the latest major leader to visit the kingdom last weekend.
