SAUDI ARABIA: KING SALMAN’S NEW TEAM TAKES CHARGE

[Sally]

In case anyone is interested in the speech the new King gave plus the names of his appointments.................

SAUDI ARABIA: KING SALMAN’S NEW TEAM TAKES CHARGE
FEBRUARY 1, 2015 ARAB NEWS LEAVE A COMMENT
By Arab News

By P.K. Abdul Ghafour

Saudi Arabia is all set for a new era under Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman as the newly appointed ministers and regional governors took oath of office in front of the king at Al-Yamamah Palace on Sunday.

King Salman urged the new governors and ministers to give top priority for the welfare and prosperity of citizens. “May Allah help us all to serve our religion, nation and people,” the king said in a brief speech.

Continue reading at:

Saudi Arabia King Salman s New Team Takes Charge - Eurasia Review

 

[Sunni Man]

How nice......

 

[waltky]

Want to replace him with his 73 year old brother...

Saudi Arabia: Eight of the 12 surviving sons of country's monarch support move to oust King Salman
Oct 24, 2015, Eight of the 12 surviving sons of Saudi Arabia's founding monarch are supporting a move to oust King Salman, 79, the country's ailing ruler, and replace him with his 73-year-old brother, according to a dissident prince.

The prince also claims that a clear majority of the country's powerful Islamic clerics, known as the Ulama, would back a palace coup to oust the current King and install Prince Ahmed bin Abdulaziz, a former Interior Minister, in his place. "The Ulama and religious people prefer Prince Ahmed - not all of them, but 75 per cent," said the prince, himself a grandson of King Ibn Saud, who founded the ruling dynasty in 1932. Support from the clerics would be vital for any change of monarch, since in the Saudi system only they have the power to confer religious and therefore political legitimacy on the leadership.

Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz​

The revelation suggests there is increasing pressure within the normally secretive Saudi royal family to bring to a head the internal power struggle that has erupted since King Salman inherited the throne at the beginning of this year. The prince, who cannot be named for security reasons, is the author of two recently published letters calling for the royal family to replace the current Saudi leadership. In 1964 King Saud was finally deposed after a long power struggle, when the majority of senior royal family members and the Kingdom's religious establishment spoke with one voice and withdrew their support. The prince says something similar is going to happen again soon. "Either the King will leave Saudi Arabia, like King Saud, and he will be very respected inside and outside the country," he told The Independent. "Alternatively Prince Ahmed will become Crown Prince, but with control of and responsibility for the whole country - the economy, oil, armed forces, national guard, interior ministry, secret service, in fact everything from A to Z."

Unhappiness at King Salman's own diminishing faculties - he is reported to be suffering from Alzheimer's disease - has been compounded by his controversial appointments, the continuing and costly war in Yemen and the recent Hajj disaster. Earlier this week the International Monetary Fund warned that Saudi Arabia may run out of financial assets within five years unless the government sharply curbs its spending, because of a combination of low oil prices and the economic impact of regional wars. The King's appointment of his favourite son, Mohammed bin Salman, 30, to the novel post of Deputy Crown Prince in April, and the decision to make him Defence Minister - enabling him to launch a proxy war in Yemen against the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels who forced the pro-Saudi former President to flee - have heightened tensions. He is said to have assumed too much power and wealth since being elevated to this position. "Any paper or phone call to his father goes through him," said the prince. The current Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Nayef, 56, a nephew of King Salman, is also unpopular.

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