Salman, who is the new King of Saudi Arabia?
The new king of Saudi Arabia, Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud, has spent
more than a half-century among the top echelons of one of the world's
most powerful families and is known to serve as mediator and peacekeeper
between its often competing factions.
Best known for overseeing
the development of the Saudi capital, Riyadh, during his nearly 50 years
as its governor, he became the country's defense minister in 2011 as a
series of uprisings were shaking Arab leaders who had long been Saudi
allies.
While Salman is popular inside the kingdom and in the
ruling family, he ascended the throne after the death of his brother
Abdullah on Friday amid increasing strains on the kingdom. The
drop of world oil prices has hurt the country's economic base; the
jihadists of the Islamic State have questioned its status as the global
lodestar of Islam; and new civil strife is shredding Yemen, its southern
neighbor. Analysts said that those challenges would most likely keep the new monarch from making any sudden changes to policy.
"There will be a strong emphasis on continuity," said Bernard Haykel, a
professor of Near Eastern studies at Princeton University. "Especially
at a time when the price of oil is low and there is lots of turmoil in
the region, the last thing they need is to get their people riled up." It
remained unclear how capable Salman would be at putting in place Saudi
responses to these difficulties. As crown prince, he was said to have
taken over many of the duties of the head of state as Abdullah grew ill,
but Salman's own health is in question.
He is 79, has had at least one
stroke and lost some movement in one of his arms. Robert Jordan, a
former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia, said that Salman had a strong
record as a good administrator, best demonstrated by his governorship of
Riyadh. "He is considered to be a straight-shooter, not corrupt, well educated," Jordan said. His
stances on social issues are less clear, but few think he will roll
back the modest reforms put in place by his brother, which included
encouraging women to enter the workforce - a move criticized by some
parts of the conservative clerical establishment.
"He is very
conservative, of course, like the rest of the kingdom, but I don't think
he is likely to undo the reforms that King Abdullah initiated," Jordan
said. In a statement attributed to the new king read on Saudi
state television, he promoted Prince Muqrin bin Abdul-Aziz, who had been
deputy crown prince, to crown prince, putting him next in line to the
throne. Muqrin, relatively young for a Saudi leader at 69, is a
former air force pilot who also served as governor of Madina province
before being named the head of Saudi intelligence, a post he held until
2012. Like Salman, Abdullah and the kingdom's previous four monarchs,
Muqrin is a son of King Abdul Aziz, the founder of the modern Saudi
state.
Jean-Francois Seznec, who teaches political economy of the
Gulf at Georgetown University, said that the transition would probably
not affect Saudi oil policy and the kingdom's strategy of keeping
production up despite falling prices in order to hang on to market
share. "I think for the time being that they will be careful not to change very much and to go for stability," he said. But
dealing with the crisis in Yemen, which shares a long border with Saudi
Arabia and harbors al-Qaida militants who are hostile to the monarchy,
will probably be Salman's first task.
"I think it scares the hell
out of the Saudis," Seznec said. "It is a dangerous place for them, and
their Yemeni policy has been a huge failure." Salman's sons,
too, hold a number of powerful positions: Prince Abdulaziz is the deputy
oil minister; Prince Faisal is the governor of Madina Province; and
Prince Sultan heads the tourism authority and was also an astronaut.
Source: ndtv.com
Nessun commento:
Posta un commento