Saudi King Salman
pledged on Friday to maintain existing energy and foreign policies then
quickly moved to appoint younger men as his heirs, settling the
succession for years to come by naming a deputy crown prince from his
dynasty's next generation.
King Abdullah died early on Friday after a short illness.
By
appointing his youngest half-brother Muqrin, 69, as Crown Prince and
nephew Mohammed bin Nayef, 55, as Deputy Crown Prince, Salman has
swiftly quelled speculation about internal palace rifts at a moment of
great regional turmoil.
Oil prices jumped in an immediate reaction as news of Abdullah's death added to uncertainty in energy markets.
Salman,
thought to be 79, takes over as the ultimate authority in a country
that faces long-term domestic challenges compounded by the plunging
price of oil in recent months and the rise of the Islamic State militant
group in Iraq and Syria, which vows to topple the Al Saud.
Salman
must navigate a white-hot rivalry with Shi'ite Muslim power Iran
playing out in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Lebanon and Bahrain, open conflict in
two neighboring states, a threat from Islamist militants and bumpy
relations with the United States.
In his first speech as king,
shown live on Saudi television, Salman pledged to maintain the same
approach to ruling the world's top oil exporter and birthplace of Islam
as his predecessors and called for unity among Arab states.
"We
will continue, God willing, to hold the straight course that this
country has followed since its establishment by the late King
Abdulaziz," he said.
Mohammed bin Nayef becomes the first grandson
of the kingdom's founding monarch, King Abdulaziz, known as Ibn Saud,
to take an established place in the line of succession.
All Saudi
kings since Abdulaziz's death in 1953 have been his sons and the move
into the next generation had raised the prospect of a palace power
struggle.
King Salman also appointed his own son, Mohammed bin Salman, Defense Minister and head of the royal court.
Reputedly
pragmatic and adept at managing the delicate balance of clerical,
tribal, royal and Western interests that factor into Saudi policy
making, Salman appears unlikely to change the kingdom's approach to
foreign affairs or energy sales.
Despite rumors about Salman's
health and strength, diplomats who have attended meetings between the
new king and foreign leaders over the past year have said he has been
fully engaged in talks lasting several hours at a time.
Reform legacy
Many
Saudis in a country with a young population will be unable to recall a
time before King Abdullah's rule, both as monarch from 2005 and as de
facto regent for a decade before that.
His legacy was an effort to
overhaul the kingdom's economic and social systems to address a looming
demographic crisis by creating private sector jobs and making young
Saudis better prepared to take them.
"I think (Salman) will
continue with Abdullah's reforms. He realises the importance of this.
He's not conservative in person, but he values the opinion of the
conservative constituency of the country," said Jamal Khashoggi, head of
a news channel owned by a Saudi prince.
However, Abdullah's
reforms did not stretch to politics, and after the Arab Spring his
security forces clamped down on all forms of dissent, imprisoning
outspoken critics of the ruling family alongside women drivers and
Islamist militants.
As the Saudi population grows and oil prices
fall globally, the Al Saud will increasingly struggle to maintain its
generous spending on social benefits for ordinary people, potentially
undermining its future legitimacy in a country where there are no
elections, analysts say.
King Salman has previously spoken against
the idea of introducing democracy in SaudiArabia in comments to
American diplomats recorded in embassy cables later released by
WikiLeaks.
Unmarked grave
In keeping with
Muslim traditions, Abdullah's body, clothed in white and shrouded in a
simple cloth, will be carried on an ambulance stretcher by relatives to
rest in the mosque before being borne to the cemetery and buried in an
unmarked grave on Friday.
Prayers in the mosque will be led by King Salman and attended by Muslim heads of state and other senior figures.
Non-Muslim
dignitaries will visit to pay respects to the new monarch and crown
prince, and other members of the Al Saud dynasty, in the coming days.
Later,
following the evening prayer an hour after sunset, King Salman and
Crown Prince Muqrin will receive pledges of allegiance from other ruling
family members, Wahhabi clerics, tribal chiefs, leading businessmen and
other Saudi subjects.
In the kingdom's strict Wahhabi sect of
Sunni Islam, ostentatious displays of grief are frowned upon: after
previous deaths of Saudi monarchs and other top royals, there was no
official period of mourning and flags were at full mast.
Despite a
surge of sorrowful messages from Saudis on social media, that religious
constraint on public commemorations meant there were no signs in
Riyadh's streets early on Friday that the country's long-time ruler had
died.
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