{"id":112292,"date":"2015-04-29T08:38:31","date_gmt":"2015-04-29T08:38:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=112292"},"modified":"2015-04-29T08:56:24","modified_gmt":"2015-04-29T08:56:24","slug":"saudi-king-announces-new-heirs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2015\/04\/saudi-king-announces-new-heirs\/","title":{"rendered":"Saudi King announces new heirs"},"content":{"rendered":"
Saudi Arabia’s new king has announced a major cabinet reshuffle that puts in place a new generation to succeed him.<\/p>\n
King Salman has appointed his nephew, the powerful Interior Minister Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, as crown prince.<\/p>\n
The king’s son, Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has been made deputy crown prince and the foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, has been replaced.<\/p>\n
King Salman, 78, acceded to the throne in January after the death of his half-brother Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz.<\/p>\n
Abdullah, who was thought to be aged about 90, had been on the throne since 2005 and Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader for the 10 years before that.<\/p>\n
The BBC’s Kim Ghattas, who was recently in Riyadh, says this latest reshuffle shows King Salman is firmly turning the page on the era of his predecessor.<\/p>\n
He has pushed aside allies of the late monarch such as his half-brother Muqrin bin Abdul Aziz, who until Wednesday was crown prince.<\/p>\n
The rise of Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, 55, and Prince Mohammed bin Salman, believed to be in his early 30s, means that for the first time a grandson of the kingdom’s founder, King Abdul Aziz, is in line to rule.<\/p>\n