FAYEZ NURELDINE AFP RIYADH Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz named his son and heir to Prince Mohammed bin Salman as the kingdom's prime minister and his second son Prince Khalid as defense minister, a royal decree showed on Tuesday.
The reshuffle kept another son, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, as energy minister, said the old king in the royal decree carried by state news agency SPA.
Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, Finance Minister Mohammed al-Jadaan and Investment Minister Khalid al-Falih remain in their positions, according to the decree.
The crown prince, known as MbS, is promoted from the defense minister and has been the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter and a major US ally in the Middle East.
His new role as prime minister is in line with the king's previous delegation of duties, including representing the kingdom on foreign visits and chairing summits hosted by the kingdom, a Saudi official said.
HRH the crown prince, based on the king's orders, already supervises the main executive bodies of the state on a daily basis, and his new role as prime minister is within that context, according to the official who declined to be identified.
Such delegation of duties has taken place in the kingdom several times, the official said.
The crown prince said the kingdom had increased its self-sufficiency in military industries to 15 percent from 2 percent and plans to reach 50 percent under the new defense minister, SPA reported.
King Salman will still preside over the Cabinet meetings he attends, the decree showed. After the decree was made, state TV showed the king chairing a weekly cabinet meeting.
The 86-year-old king, who is now the custodian of Islam's holiest sites, became ruler in 2015 after spending over 2 -- 1 2 years as crown prince. He has been hospitalized for various ailments over the past two years.
Crown Prince Mohammed has changed Saudi Arabia radically since he came to power in 2017 as a result of efforts to diversify the economy from its dependence on oil, allowing women to drive and curbing clerics' powers.
His reforms have come with a crackdown on dissent, with activists, royals, women rights activists and businessmen jailed.
The killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul in 2018 has tarnished his reputation and strained relations with the United States and other Western allies.