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SAUDI-CABINET-GOVERNMENT LEAD
Saudi Arabia reshuffles cabinet with eye on culture
RIYADH, June 2, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Saudi Arabia announced another cabinet
reshuffle Saturday with a heavy focus on culture and religion, as the kingdom
undergoes a major image overhaul.
This is the second significant government change since the appointment of
Prince Mohammed bin Salman, son of the king, as heir to the region’s most
powerful throne.
The crown prince serves as deputy prime minister under his father, King
Salman.
State news agency SPA announced King Salman had replaced the country’s
labour and Islamic affairs ministers — and named a prince linked to the
purchase of a Leonardo da Vinci painting of Jesus as culture minister.
Saudi Arabia for decades has combined its culture and information
ministries.
The decree announced the culture ministry was now a separate entity under
Prince Badr bin Abdullah, the man named by the New York Times as the mystery
buyer of Da Vinci’s “Salvator Mundi” for a record-breaking $450 million at
auction last year.
The Wall Street Journal later reported that he was acting on behalf of
Prince Mohammed. The Louvre Abu Dhabi has said the religious painting was
“acquired” by the Emirati authorities and would be put on display there.
Non-Muslim worship is banned in Saudi Arabia, but the kingdom has hosted
high-ranking Christian clerics in recent months, notably from Lebanon and
France.
In April, the Vatican signed a memorandum for a meeting with Saudi
officials every three years.
Ahmed bin Suleiman al-Rajhi, an engineer and private sector businessman,
was on Saturday named labour and social development minister. Sheikh
Abdullatif bin Abdulaziz Al-Sheikh was named the new Islamic affairs
minister.
Prince Mohammed, who has steadily consolidated his grip on power since
sidelining his cousin as crown prince last June, has spearheaded a string of
policy changes in ultraconservative Saudi Arabia, including reinstating
cinemas and allowing women to drive.
Often referred to by his initials, MBS, the prince pledged a “moderate,
open” Saudi Arabia in a televised keynote speech in October, telling
international investors his country wanted “to live a normal life.”
Saudi Arabia has been dominated by a harsh strain of conservative Islam
since the 1979 seizure of the Grand Mosque of Mecca by around 400 extremists,
a reaction against what they saw as Saudi society’s plunge into immorality
with entertainment, including cinema and television, and women taking jobs.
A bloody military assault dislodged them two weeks later, leaving scores
dead on both sides. Their influence, however, has remained.
Over the past year, Prince Mohammed has steered a modernisation campaign
that aims to sell the country to foreign audiences and investors, with
hundreds of billions of dollars pledged to projects that will boost tourism
and entertainment.
On Friday, the crown prince earned a warning from Al-Qaeda in the Arabian
Peninsula, the jihadist group’s Yemen-based branch, over his “sinful
projects”, which AQAP said included a WWE wrestling event hosted by the
kingdom in April.
Saudi Arabia, an absolute monarchy, will welcome millions of Muslim
faithful on their annual pilgrimage to Mecca, Islam’s holiest city, come
August.
The kingdom on Saturday announced it had set up a royal commission for
Mecca, to be chaired by Prince Mohammed. No further details were made
available.
The cabinet reshuffle comes as many activists remain behind bars, after at
least 11 of them were detained last month.
They have been identified by rights groups as mostly veteran women
campaigners for the right to drive — and to end Saudi’s male guardianship
system, under which women must still secure the approval of their fathers,
brothers or husbands to travel or study.
At least four activists have been released, according to Amnesty
International. The fate of the others remains unclear.
Prince Mohammed is also seen as the driving force behind the detention of
200 royals and businessmen at the Ritz Carlton in November in what the
government said was a crackdown on corruption.
Most have since been released, after reaching settlements with the state.
BSS/AFP/FI/ 1605 hrs