Saudi king demotes foreign minister in major cabinet shake-up

Saudi Arabia's King Salman has issued a royal decree to appoint a new foreign minister in a major government reshuffle, the official SPA news agency reported.

MENA

1 min read

The New Arab

27 December, 2018

Saudi Arabia - cabinet reshuffle

Saudi Arabia's king has issued a royal decree to appoint a new foreign minister in a major government reshuffle, the official SPA news agency reported on Thursday.

King Salman named Ibrahim al-Assaf to take over from Adel al-Jubeir and demoted the former top diplomat to the post of minister of state for foreign affairs.

Soft-spoken Jubeir had served in the position since April 2015, before that he was Riyadh's envoy in Washington.

Assaf had been serving as minister of state, and has held a seat on the boards of oil-giant Saudi Aramco and the kingdom's sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund.

King Salman named new ministers for the information, education and national guard portfolios.

Among changes in the major shake-up, Turki al-Sheikh was pardoned from his role as head of the kingdom's sports authority and appointed the head of the entertainment authority.

The Saudi ambassador to London was also relieved of his post.

The wide-ranging overhaul comes amid international fallout from the killing of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi nearly three months ago.

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