Saudi King appoints new foreign minister

International Desk: Saudi Arabia's King Salman has appointed a new foreign minister as part of a major cabinet reshuffle, according to state media.

A royal decree on Wednesday demoted outgoing chief diplomat Adel al-Jubeir to the position of minister of state for foreign affairs and named Ibrahim al-Assaf as his replacement.

Thursday's shake-up is the first since the October 2 killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the kingdom's consulate in the Turkish city of Istanbul by a Saudi hit squad.

The murder, as well as the Saudi government's shifting narratives, sparked international outrage and jeopardised Riyadh's relations with its Western allies.
Turkey and Western intelligence agencies have either hinted at or directly named King Salman's son, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, as the mastermind behind the Saudi journalist's murder but the monarch left his heir's portfolios unchanged in the latest reshuffle.

Marwan Kabalan, head of policy analysis at the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies, said the move did not come as a surprise given that al-Jubeir was seen as a "leftover from the [late] King Abdullah era", referring to the former Saudi monarch who died in 2015.

"We've been expecting al-Jubeir to be out for some time. Even before the Khashoggi affair," Kabalan said in reference to the journalist's killing.
"But I now think he's been used as another scapegoat in this issue."

Source: Agencies


risingbd/Dec 28, 2018/Mukul