Mohammad bin Salman attends a swearing-in ceremony naming him the country's new prime minister, at the al-Salam royal palace in Jeddah on Sept. 27, 2022. (Credit: AFP)
On Aug. 10, King Salman of Saudi Arabia issued a royal decree permitting the eldest member of the Council of Ministers to preside over sessions in the absence of both the king and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), who also serves as prime minister and the kingdom’s de facto ruler.The decree allows a senior royal descendant of the kingdom’s founder, King Abdulaziz Al Saud, to temporarily lead the cabinet — a significant shift in the concentration of power that has been in the hands of King Salman and MBS for nearly a decade. Could this signal a new order in Saudi power dynamics? Umar Karim, a Saudi Arabia expert and researcher at the University of Birmingham, provides insights into the implications of this decree.What does this new decree mean, and why was it issued now?Given King Salman’s declining health and MBS’s frequent travel...
On Aug. 10, King Salman of Saudi Arabia issued a royal decree permitting the eldest member of the Council of Ministers to preside over sessions in the absence of both the king and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), who also serves as prime minister and the kingdom’s de facto ruler.The decree allows a senior royal descendant of the kingdom’s founder, King Abdulaziz Al Saud, to temporarily lead the cabinet — a significant shift in the concentration of power that has been in the hands of King Salman and MBS for nearly a decade. Could this signal a new order in Saudi power dynamics? Umar Karim, a Saudi Arabia expert and researcher at the University of Birmingham, provides insights into the implications of this decree.What does this new decree mean, and why was it issued now?Given King Salman’s declining health and MBS’s...
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