On 23 January 2015, Salman, aged 79, inherited the throne after his half-brother Abdullah died of
pneumonia at the age of 90. The new king issued a statement which read "His Highness Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and all members of the family and the nation mourn
Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, who passed away at exactly 1 am this morning." He appointed his younger half-brother,
Muqrin bin Abdulaziz, as Crown Prince. with King Salman in 2015 After coming to power, Salman reshuffled the cabinet on 30 January 2015.
Khalid bin Ali bin Abdullah al-Humaidan was made the
intelligence chief.
Prince Bandar bin Sultan was removed from his post in the
security council and the adviser to the monarch was also removed as were the former monarch's sons
Turki as governor of Riyadh and
Mishaal as governor of
Mecca.
Ali al-Naimi remained the minister of
petroleum and mineral resources, as did
Saud al-Faisal of the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and
Ibrahim Al-Assaf as
finance minister. Salman also "gave a bonus of two months' salary to all Saudi state employees and military personnel", including pensioners and students, while also asking citizens to "not forget me in your prayers". In February 2015, Prince Salman received
Charles, Prince of Wales, during his six-day tour in the Middle East. They "exchanged cordial talks and reviewed bilateral relations" between the countries. In April 2021, Prince
Mishaal bin Majid Al Saud, who has been the governor of Jeddah since 1997, was appointed as adviser to King Salman with the rank of minister.
Early reforms One of the first things the King and his son, Mohammed bin Salman, did was to streamline the government bureaucracy. On the death of King Abdullah, there were as many as eleven government secretariats, and all of these were abolished and reconstituted as only two, the
Council of Political and Security Affairs (CPSA), headed by Deputy Crown prince
Mohammed bin Nayef, and the
Council for Economic and Development Affairs (CEDA), headed by the Secretary-General of the
Royal Court, Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who was given free rein to completely reorganize the government and cementing the power of the Sudairi faction, to which both princes belong.
Yemen military intervention of India, 16 November 2015. In March 2015, the king ordered the bombing of Yemen and
military intervention against the
Shia Houthis and forces loyal to former President
Ali Abdullah Saleh, who was deposed in the 2011 uprising. He first put together a coalition of ten
Sunni Muslim countries. Code-named Operation Decisive Storm, this was the first time the
Saudi Air Force had launched airstrikes against another country since the 1990–91 Gulf War. According to
Farea Al-Muslim, direct
war crimes have been committed during the conflict; for example, an
IDP camp was hit by a Saudi airstrike.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) wrote that the Saudi-led air campaign had conducted airstrikes in apparent violation of the
laws of war. Human rights groups have also criticized Saudi Arabia for the alleged use of cluster bombs against Yemeni civilians. In 2022, Saudi airstrikes at a prison in Northern Yemen killed at least 70 people and knocked out the country's internet access. The UN estimated that by the end of the year 2021, the death toll of the war on Yemen had reached 377,000 people and could reach 1.3 million people by 2030.
Crown Prince changes In April 2015, three months after becoming king, Salman appointed a full nephew,
Muhammad bin Nayef, as the new Crown Prince to replace his youngest brother
Prince Muqrin. Furthermore, he made his son, Mohammed bin Salman, the Deputy Crown Prince. Almost all powers under the king were concentrated in the hands of the crown prince and deputy crown prince, both of whom held the portfolio determining all security and economic development issues in Saudi Arabia. King Salman then removed Muhammad bin Nayef from the line of succession to the Saudi throne on 21 June 2017 and designated his son Mohammed bin Salman as the new crown prince. At the same time, King Salman removed Muhammad bin Nayef from his other positions in the Saudi government. Mohammad bin Salman has been described as the
power behind the throne.
KSRelief In May 2015, the King Salman Center for Relief and Humanitarian Aid (KSRelief) was established to deliver aid internationally to victims of civil war and natural disaster, working with the UN and other agencies. As of June 2018, KSRelief has implemented more than 400 individual projects in 40 countries at a cost of $1.8 billion. Moreover, in 2018, KSRelief assisted 180,555 Syrian patients living in
Zataari Syrian refugees camp in
Jordan. In 2019, KSRelief signed a memorandum of cooperation with
UNICEF that aims at enhancing cooperation in the humanitarian field, exchanging knowledge, sharing experiences, promoting voluntary work and boosting capacity building programs. Until 2019, the center provided 1,839 Yemeni civilians wounded during the war with prosthetic limbs for a total amount of $2.3 million. and King Salman in 2016 In its ongoing efforts to support the people of Yemen, KSRelief organized a vocational training program to train women in
Yemen to enable them to earn money for themselves and their families. In a similar context, under the umbrella of the UN, KSRelief has led an international team to implement a rehabilitation project for the children affected by war in Yemen. Moreover, as part of the 40th session of the UN
Human Rights Council, KSRelief organized an event entitled: Children and the Humanitarian Crisis in Yemen where it presented a number of facts and figures related to the amount of assistance provided by the center to the people of Yemen. This includes the implementation of 328 projects for an amount of $2 billion. Furthermore, in 2018 alone, KSRelief provided medical services to 2,501,897 Yemenis. In 2019, KSRelief signed a number of agreements with different civil society organizations to implement relief projects for the benefit of Palestinian and
Syrian refugees as well as the host Lebanese community. KSRelief signed an agreement with the UNHCR to support the families affected by war for an amount of $5 million. Another agreement with IOM was signed to help Syrian refugees under the poverty line for an amount of $3.8 million. In 2020, KSRelief confirmed that it will be rebuilding the camp of Syrian refugees that had been destroyed during the fighting of local youth and camp residents. They also covered the needs of the refugees. In 2021, KSRelief and UNESCO planned to launch the Kodrat project which aims to support Lebanon teachers through the creation of an online self-learning platform. At an estimated cost of $887,000, the one-year project will directly train about 1,000 teachers and 50 trainers from 100 Lebanese public schools affected by the Beirut explosion. In 2022, KSRelief continued its relief efforts to ensure food security for refugees in Lebanon, Sudan, Bangladesh, and Yemen. In 2023, KSRelief provided treatment services to people of Yemen. In 2024, KSRelief continued its food security project in Sudan to aid more than 4,000 individuals. It also carried out humanitarian projects in Lebanon and Indonesia.
Human rights In February 2012,
Ali Mohammed Baqir al-Nimr was arrested for participating in, and encouraging, pro-democracy protests, when he was 16 or 17 years old. In May 2014, Ali Al-Nimr was sentenced to be executed, despite the minimum age for execution being 18 when a crime is committed. Ali Al-Nimr has reported being tortured in detention. He was later released in 2021. In February 2015, a man from
Hafar al-Batin was sentenced to death for rejecting the religion of Islam. In June 2015, Saudi Arabia's Supreme Court upheld the sentence of 1,000 lashes and 10 years in prison for
Raif Badawi, a Saudi Arabian blogger who was imprisoned in 2012 after being charged for 'insulting Islam'. In April 2020, the Saudi Supreme Court stated under a royal decree made by King Salman that minors who commit crimes will no longer face execution, but would be sentenced to imprisonment in a juvenile detention facility for a maximum of 10 years.
Iran and Syria In 2015, US Defense Secretary
Ashton Carter met with King Salman and his Arabian military counterpart, Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, at Jeddah to answer regional security concerns in the Kingdom and the Gulf states over lifting Iranian economic and conventional military sanctions as the
Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action outlines. The King has misgivings over the deal since it would increase the regional power of Iran especially in the proxy conflicts in Syria, Yemen, and elsewhere. In January 2016, Saudi Arabia executed the prominent
Saudi Shia cleric
Sheikh Nimr. Iran warned that the House of Saud would pay a high price for the execution of Sheikh Nimr by God's will. Saudi Arabia openly backed the
Army of Conquest, an umbrella rebel group that reportedly included an
al-Qaeda linked
al-Nusra Front and another
Salafi coalition known as
Ahrar al-Sham. In May 2019, leaders of Gulf and Arab states held two emergency summits in Mecca to present a united front to Iran. Salman accused Iran of threatening global oil supplies and shipping at a meeting of Arab leaders that called on the international community to confront Tehran following attacks on shipping and rising tensions in the oil-rich region. Salman said "what the Iranian regime is doing, from intervening in regional countries' affairs and developing its nuclear program, threatening global maritime traffic and global oil supplies, is a blatant violation of the treaties and principles of the United Nations." He urged the international community should "use all means to deter this regime."
Normalization of ties with Israel In the late 2010s and early 2020s under King Salman, Saudi Arabia engaged in attempts to normalize relations with Israel. Saudi Arabia engaged in such efforts in order to forge a defensive alliance against Iranian threats against Saudi Arabia, either directly or indirectly through
Iranian proxies such as the
Houthis in Yemen.
Panama Papers revelations King Salman has been implicated in the
Panama Papers leaks, with two companies originating in the
British Virgin Islands taking mortgages in excess of US$34 million to purchase property in
central London. His role has not been specified. The then-Crown Prince Muhammad bin Nayef has also been
named in association with the Papers.
Later reforms Further government reforms took place in June 2018, when Salman replaced the labor and Islamic affairs ministers. The appointment of businessman Ahmed al-Rajhi as labor minister signalled a growing role for private sector expertise in the Saudi government. The new minister for Islamic affairs, Abdullatif al-Alsheikh, had previously been credited with reining in the power of the religious police. At the same time Salman ordered the establishment of the Ministry of Culture, with responsibility for delivering Saudi Vision 2030's cultural goals; and the Council of Royal Reserves, tasked with environmental protection. In September 2022, the King resigned from the post of prime minister, handing this role to his son Mohammed. ==Influence==