Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah Shuffles Cabinet, Keeps Oil Chief

Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah made the most sweeping changes to his cabinet in almost a decade on the throne, as the kingdom faces the challenges of plunging oil prices and Islamic State militants.
Changes were made at the agriculture, higher education, information, telecommunications, Islamic affairs, health, social affairs and transportation ministries, the official Saudi Press Agency reported yesterday, citing royal decrees. Key posts, such as oil, finance, interior and defense, were left unchanged.
It’s the most significant cabinet reshuffle since the Saudi monarch, born in 1924, took power in 2005. Two years after ascending the throne, King Abdullah re-appointed all serving cabinet members including Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi, who has held his post since 1995, and the monarch has only made minor ministerial changes since then.
The overhaul comes as Saudi rulers seek to manage the impact of crude prices that have dropped about 40 percent from their June peak. The decline accelerated after the Nov. 27 decision when the Saudi-led Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries ruled out cuts in production, pushing Brent crude below $70 a barrel for the first time since May 2010.
Saudi Arabia also faces a potential threat from Islamic State militants after joining the U.S. military campaign against the jihadist group in Iraq and Syria. Saudi authorities said yesterday they arrested 135 terrorism suspects in nationwide raids, after attacks linked to supporters of the al-Qaeda breakaway group.

‘Building Tensions’

Abdullah has been gradually introducing younger members of the royal family into key government positions. The process has gained speed since 2011 when revolts spread through the Arab world and Saudi Arabia expanded its welfare programs to ward off unrest.
“The king and his advisers are looking to the future transitions, but also toward the present problems,” said Paul Sullivan, a Middle East specialist at Georgetown University in Washington. “Many of these cabinet shifts have to do with cultural, social and economic issues that are a major cause of some building tensions in the kingdom.”
Among the cabinet members replaced in the overhaul was Islamic Affairs Minister Sheikh Saleh bin Abdulaziz al-Ashaikh, who ran the country’s mosques and religious schools since 1999. Another was Khalid al-Angary, who had held the post of minister for higher education since 1991, according to the website of the Saudi Embassy in Washington DC.