Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah has appointed his half brother, who is the kingdom’s powerful interior minister, as the nation’s second deputy prime minister, an announcement said late on Friday.
The appointment indicates a succession order in the royal family after four years of speculation over who will be the next-in-line once current heir, Prince Sultan, becomes king.
A royal statement carried by the official SPA news agency said Prince Nayef will take over the post, which is seen as crown-prince-in-waiting.
The Saudi Constitution does not require the king to appoint a second deputy prime minister but Friday’s move will allow Abdullah to travel abroad.
With Sultan, who is in his 80s, away in the US on medical treatment, Nayef’s appointment will ensure that when Abdullah goes to the Arab Summit in Qatar next week and later to the G20 meetings, somebody will be in charge at home.
However, Nayef’s appointment as second to the throne will still have to go through the Allegiance Association, set up by Abdullah in 2006 and composed of his brothers and some of his nephews who vote by a secret ballot to choose future kings and crown princes.
The Allegiance is expected to have the final say on who becomes crown prince after Sultan.
Nayef’s appointment comes five months after Sultan, who is the first deputy prime minister, left for New York for medical tests and later surgery. Rumors have circulated about Sultan’s health, but senior Saudi officials have said he is doing better after surgery.
Under the monarchy, Abdullah also acts as prime minister.
The Saudi monarchy was established in 1932 after its founder King Abdulaziz united the country’s various regions under his command.
Abdullah, now in his mid-80s, assumed the throne in Aug. 2005 after the death of his long-ailing half brother.
Within hours of Friday’s announcement, another of Abdullah’s half brothers, Prince Talal bin Abdul-Aziz, issued a statement saying the appointment of Nayef, who is in his 70s, should not come at the expense of the Allegiance’s authority and that Nayef’s position as second-in-line to the throne should not be assumed.
Talal said that Nayef’s appointment was just “an administrative nomination.”
“I am appealing to King Abdullah to have the royal court declare what is meant by this nomination and that it does not mean that he will be the crown prince,” Talal said.
Talal is considered an outspoken prince and holds no government post. He was forced briefly into exile in the 1960s amid reports at the time that he planned a revolt.
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