SAUDI ARABIA/FILE: King Abdullah appoints his Defence Minister, Prince Salman, as heir apparent, at a time of challenges

Record ID: 188998

  • Title: SAUDI ARABIA/FILE: King Abdullah appoints his Defence Minister, Prince Salman, as heir apparent, at a time of challenges
  • Date: 20th June 2012
  • Summary: RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA (FILE) (REUTERS) ***CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** SAUDI KING ABDULLAH SEATED AND THE NEW CROWN PRINCE SALMAN BIN ABDULAZIZ DRESSED IN WHITE SEATED (LEFT) BEHIND HIM PRINCE SALMAN BIN ABDULAZIZ ARRIVING TO THE FUNERAL OF HIS BROTHER THE LATE CROWN PRINCE SULTAN BIN ABDILAZIZ PRINCE SALMAN (LEFT) CARRYING THE BODY OF HIS BROTHER THE LATE CROWN PRINCE SULTAN BIN ABDULAZIZ PRINCE SALMAN BIN ABDULAZIZ (FRONT) WALKING WITH PRINCE SAUDI AL-FAISAL. WIDE OF GCC 32TH SUMMIT IN RIYADH PRINCE SALMAN BIB ABDULAZIZ SEATED BESIDE PRINCE OF KUWAIT PRINCE SALMAN AND EMIR OF KUWAIT CLAPPING FLAGS OF GCC COUNTRIES KING ABDULLAH WALKING AND PRINCE SALMAN BEHIND HIM EXTERIOR OF GOVERNMENT PALACE IN RIYADH. ARABIC WRITING READING: OFFICE OF PRINCE OF RIYADH VARIOUS OF PRINCE SALMAN SIGNING AN AGREEMENT WITH THE SAUDI TELECOMMUNICATIONS COMPANIES TO START A SUPPORTING CAMPAIGN FOR KIDNEY FAILURE PATIENTS ATTENDANTS PRINCE SALMAN SPEAKING WITH HIS SON RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA (FILE) (ORIGINALLY 4:3) (REUTERS) PRINCE SALMAN ENTERING WEDDING HALL AND WAVING TO GROOMS AT MASS WEDDING (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) PRINCE SALMAN BIN ABDULAZIZ ,SPEAKING TO ATTENDANTS, SAYING: "The total amount was spent this night (the cost of mass marriages) is 24.54 million riyals." RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA (FILE) (REUTERS) PRINCE SALMAN ARRIVING AT THE WADI HANIFA, FIRST WATER PARKS IN RIYADH CLOSE OF PRINCE SALMAN RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA (FILE) (REUTERS) PRINCE AHMED BIN ABDULAZIZ -THE NEW INTERIOR MINISTER (WITH WHITE HEAD COVER) STANDING WITH OTHER ROYAL FAMILY MEMBERS AND GUESTS AWAITING THE ARRIVAL OF LATE CROWN PRINCE SULTAN'S BODY RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA (FILE) (ORIGINALLY 4:3) (REUTERS) PRINCE AHMED BIN ABDULAZIZ ARRIVING FOR THE GCC INTERIOR MINISTERS MEETING IN RIYADH RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA (FILE) (REUTERS) WIDE OF GCC INTERIOR MINISTERS MEETING CLOSE OF OMANI DELEGATE AND PRINCE AHMED BIN ABDULAZIZ (WHITE HEAD COVER) SEATED AT THE MEETING
  • Embargoed: 5th July 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Saudi Arabia
  • Country: Saudi Arabia
  • Topics: Obituaries,Politics,Royalty
  • Reuters ID: LVA7V8ES4UVKSOIAS7D3Q5Y0QX30
  • Story Text: Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah has appointed his defence minister, Prince Salman, as heir apparent, opting for stability and a continuation of cautious reforms at a time of challenges for the world's biggest oil exporter.
    Crown Prince Salman, 76, has built a reputation for pragmatism and is likely swiftly to assume substantial day-to-day responsibilities from a king 13 years his senior.
    Since the death of King Abdulaziz Ibn Saud, the country's founding father, the succession has moved along a line of his sons. Salman becomes Abdullah's third heir after the deaths of two older brothers: Crown Prince Sultan last October and Crown Prince Nayef, the interior minister, on Saturday (June 16).
    The swift decision came as no surprise; analysts had already said they expected Salman to continue the gradual social and economic reforms adopted by King Abdullah as well as Saudi Arabia's moderate oil pricing policy.
    At stake is the future direction of a country that sits on more than one fifth of the world's proven global oil reserves.
    As crown prince and later as king, Salman will have to tackle challenges ranging from an al Qaeda security threat to systemic joblessness at a time of unparalleled Middle Eastern turmoil, all set against a regional rivalry with Shi'ite Iran.
    Like other Sunni-Muslim-led Gulf monarchies, Saudi Arabia is nervous of the rise of Islamist movements such as Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood in the turmoil created by successive "Arab Spring" revolutions, as well as growing discontent among the region's Shi'ite population groups.
    As crown prince, Salman will keep the defence portfolio and serve as deputy prime minister to King Abdullah, Monday's royal decree said.
    From 1962 until last year, Prince Salman served as governor of Riyadh, a position that gave him more contact with foreign governments than many other senior royals.
    That role saw him arbitrating disputes between members of the ruling family, putting him at the centre of the kingdom's most important power structure.
    He also had to maintain good relations with senior clerics and tribal leaders, meaning he has experience working with all the main groups that count in Saudi policy-making.
    The decree made no mention of the Allegiance Council, a family body that Abdullah set up to ensure smooth successions, which does not legally have to come into play until he dies.
    Salman's younger brother Prince Ahmed was made Nayef's successor as interior minister after spending decades as his deputy.
    Prince Ahmed is seen as unlikely to alter security policies at a time when Saudi Arabia faces a threat from al Qaeda in neighbouring Yemen and unrest among its Shi'ite Muslim minority.
    Nayef built a formidable security apparatus that crushed al Qaeda inside the kingdom and is a vital element of a global struggle against Islamist militants.
    His services arrested thousands of suspected militants and successfully infiltrated Islamist cells, but came down hard on political dissent.
    Although an al Qaeda campaign last decade was suppressed, its survivors took shelter in neighbouring Yemen, where they have built the movement's most dangerous wing, dedicated to toppling the Saudi ruling family.
    Analysts lay the credit for the rout of al Qaeda from the kingdom at the door of Prince Nayef's son, Prince Mohammed, whom militants came close to assassinating in 2010.
    The continued threat from al Qaeda, and Saudi Arabia's central role in battling the organisation, were underscored last month by an announcement in Washington that a bomb plot against Western targets put together in Yemen had been foiled.
  • Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2012. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register