Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman New PM of Saudi Arabia

Riyadh

Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdulaziz has made 37-year-old Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) prime minister. In a royal decree issued on Tuesday, the King appointed his younger son Prince Khalid bin Salman as defence minister.

Two more important appointments have also taken place. Prince Turki bin Mohammed bin Fahd bin Abdul Aziz has been made Minister of State and Prince Abdulaziz bin Turki bin Faisal has Minister of Sports. Although MBS was handling the responsibility of the Defense Minister, the truth is that due to the ill health of King Salman, he has been the undeclared ruler of Saudi for many years.

Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud will continue as Foreign Minister, Mohamed Al-Jadaan as Finance Minister and Khalid Al-Falih as Investment Minister.

King’s health is not good

After the announcement, MBS said in a statement – ​​Saudi Arabia has increased self-reliance in the defence industry from 2% to 15%. The new Defense Minister will try to take it to 50%.

King Salman, 86, became ruler in 2015, but before that, he had served as Crown Prince for nearly two and a half years, just like Prince Salman. His health is not good for the last few years. Since then there was speculation about MBS becoming the Prime Minister.

King had to be admitted to the hospital twice this year as well. Recently, in May, he was admitted to the hospital for a week, during which many tests including a colonoscopy were done.

However, the cabinet meetings will still be chaired by King Salman.

MBS entered politics in the year 2015 as the Defense Minister. As Defense Minister, he took strong military action against Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen. After this, Vision 2030 was launched in April 2016. Its purpose is to make Saudi the biggest power among Arab and Islamic countries. Under this, he took many important decisions.

The most important of these is the economy. In fact, the first objective of Vision 2030 is to separate Saudi from the oil-dependent economy and develop it as a tourism hub. MBS has started many projects like Neom City to promote tourism in the country.

MBS has been taking important decisions in the country since 2016. It is clear from his decisions that he wants to change the picture of Saudi at the international level. MBS gave women driving rights in 2018, now they have also been given voting rights.

MBS strictly prohibited the interference of fundamentalist groups, clerics and their fatwas. They are promoting pop culture in the country by backing the culture like religious police. Saudi Arabia is now hosting other sporting events, including high-profile heavyweight boxing matches.

In 2017, he strengthened his grip on power after he detained 200 princes and businessmen in connection with corruption at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Riyadh.

MBS has been accused of jailing its critics. MBS’s image was also tarnished in the year 2018 in the case of the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul. Journalist Jamal was opposed to the policies of Saudi MBS, after which he was assassinated.

It was alleged that MBS was behind the murder. In the case, US President Biden quoted an intelligence report last year as saying that MBS had approved the operation against Jamal. But his claim was rejected outright by Saudi Arabian officials.