Sunday, Nov 06, 2011


 
  (Updated to add more details.)

By Summer Said 


  Of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah Saturday named his half brother Prince Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud as the country's new defense minister, succeeding the late Crown Prince Sultan in one of the most powerful ministerial roles in the oil-rich kingdom.

Prince Salman, who has been governor of Riyadh province since 1962, has played an increasingly prominent role in Saudi politics in recent years and is considered by observers as next in line to the throne after Prince Nayef, another half-brother of King Abdullah who was named crown prince soon after Prince Sultan's death.

Prince Sultan died last month in New York while undergoing treatment for an illness that analysts believed was cancer.

(This story and related background material will be available on The Wall Street Journal website, WSJ.com.)

Prince Sultan had held the defense ministry portfolio for almost 50 years, overseeing the huge weapons purchases from the U.S., the U.K. and France that helped cement close military alliances with those countries and created one of the largest military forces in the Middle East.

The largest of the purchases, the $70 billion al-Yamama contract signed with the U.K. In 1988, was at the time described as the largest contract in history, but was later the subject of corruption probes in the U.K. and U.S.

Some observers had speculated that the defense ministry job would pass to Prince Sultan's son, Prince Khaled bin Sultan Al Saud, who commanded Saudi forces during the 1991 Gulf War.

Instead, Prince Khaled was named deputy defense minister, under Prince Salman.

The Saudi monarchy doesn't pass from father to son but rather along a line of brothers born to the former King Abdulaziz Al Saud, also known as ibn Saud, who founded the modern kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1934.

Prince Salman, believed to be 76, is one of the 19 surviving sons of Ibn Saud and is also one of the seven sons born to the former king's favorite wife, Hassa bint Ahmed al-Sudairi. Those sons, the so-called "Sudairi seven" were regarded as a formidable power bloc withing the ruling family and were given positions of high office as young men in the 1960s.

The former King Fahd was the eldest of the seven. The new crown prince and Interior minister, Prince Nayef, is also a full brother of Prince Salman.

As governor of Riyadh province, Prince Salman has been credited for turning the Saudi capital from a mid-sized town into a major urban metropolis, attracting tourism, capital projects, and foreign investment.

The prince owns a newspaper group that includes the pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat and the business newspaper al-Eqtisadiah. He is known to favor close political and economic ties with the West.

Prince Sattam bin Abdul Aziz was appointed Riyadh's governor in Prince Salman's place. Prince Sattam, who was previously the deputy governor of the Saudi capital is another son of Ibn Saud.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

05-11-11 1941GMT