Saudi king realigns line of succession
Crown prince, deputy crown prince replaced
CAIRO — A dramatic shake- up in Saudi Arabia’s line of succession and its senior leadership signals the emergence of a younger generation that is likely to champion an assertive foreign policy for the kingdom and seek to curtail the influence of rival Iran.
The reshuffling of key posts in the kingdom, announced in a series of royal decrees issued early Wednesday, also marked a sidelining of some close allies of the late King Abdullah, who died in January and was succeeded by his half- brother, Salman.
King Salman, 79, replaced both the crown prince and the deputy crown prince, putting what could be a decadeslong stamp on the conservative Saudi dynasty and for the first time introducing grandsons of the kingdom’s founding monarch into the line of succession.
Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, 55, the country’s longtime counterterrorism chief with close ties to Washington, is now crown prince and heir apparent.
The king’s son, Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was named deputy crown prince. Thought to be in his 30s, the prince was until a few months ago a relative unknown with little role in public life.
The Saudi royal family tree has dozens of branches, and succession issues involve complex alliances and rivalries. King Salman nudged out as crown prince his halfbrother, Prince Muqrin, who was close to the late king.
The shake- up in the world’s top oil- exporting country comes at a time of extraordinary regional tumult. More than four years after the Arab Spring uprisings, wars are being fought in Iraq and Syria, Libya has dissolved into a patchwork of armed fiefdoms, and Yemen has been ravaged by a Shiite Muslim insurgency and a Saudi- led military offensive against the rebels.
The air war in Yemen, now in its second month, has drawn harsh denunciations from Shiite rival Iran. Humanitarian groups have expressed alarm over the growing civilian casualty toll and widespread destruction in what was already the Arab world’s poorest country.
The offensive against Yemen’s Houthi rebels is being overseen by the nowdeputy crown prince, who became defense minister in January despite having no prior military experience.
As part of the shake- up, Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to Washington, Adel al- Jubeir, was named the kingdom’s new foreign minister — the first nonroyal to hold the post. The envoy, who has played a high- profile role in publicly explaining Saudi aims in Yemen, replaces Prince Saud al- Faisal, who had served for decades as foreign minister.
With Saudi Arabia and Iran waging a war of words over the Yemen intervention, Tehran was icily dismissive of the Saudi reshuffle. Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of Iran’s national security council, called it an “internal power struggle” and declared that “Saudi Arabia has lost its status in the Islamic world.”