RIYADH – Saudi Arabia’s top monarch has shaken up his government, switchingout a number of high-level posts in a royal decree that switched out thekingdom’s top general. The changes occur amid a three-year-war with ZaidiShiite Muslim rebels in Yemen.
Saudi Arabi’s King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud issued Monday a decreeswapping out officials in a number of positions, especially in his defenseministry. General Abdulrahman al-Banyan, previously chief of the jointstaff of Saudi Arabia’s armed forces, was appointed to be an adviser to theroyal court, Saudi Arabia’s Al Arabiyalink>reported.He was set to be replaced by Lieutenant General Fahd bin Turki, formerly incharge of the country’s ground forces.
The decree also retired Saudi air force commander Mohammed al-Otaibi,swapping him out for General Fayyadh al-Ruwaili, appointed Khaled al-Bayarias assistant secretary of defense for executive affairs and affected otherregional positions.
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Saudi Arabia has occasionally shaken up its government and this was thefirst time it has done so since a sweeping anti-corruption purge saw thearrest of dozens of princes and other officials last November. The campaignwas headed by Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud andwas widely seen asa bid to consolidate powerlink>forthe rising millennial monarch.
Prince Mohammad bin Salman has also served as first deputy prime ministersince his ascension to being next-in-line for the throne last June and asminister of defense since January 2015. Around this same time, aninsurgency by Yemeni Zaidi Shiite Muslim movement Ansar Allah—also known asthe Houthis—forced Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, an ally ofSaudi Arabia, out of the capital of Sana’a, effectively taking over thecountry.
In March 2015, Saudi Arabia gathered a coalition of mostly Sunni MuslimArab states to launch a war against Ansar Allah—which they saw as apro-Iran proxy—and supporters of longtime Yemeni leader Ali Abdullah Saleh,who was forced to resign in 2012 amid massive protests. Despite spendingbillions of dollars and receiving Western backing, Saudi Arabia and itsallies have failed to help the forces of Yemen’s internationally-recognizedgovernment retake Sana’a.
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While the Ansar Allah coalition saw its own difficulties after Salehattempted to reconcile with Saudi Arabia and was killed shortly after inDecember, Saudi Arabia has also recently been pitted against an ally. Lastmonth, southern Yemeni separatist fighters backed by the United ArabEmirates took over parts of Aden, the capital of Hadi’s exiled government,in an attempt to revive the sovereign South Yemen, which existedindependently from 1967 to 1990.
The unrest has also opened the door for jihadi insurgencies by Al-Qaeda and theIslamic State militant grouplink>.which have claimed casualties against both sides of the civil war, as wellas civilians. On Saturday, ISIS claimed responsibility for a series ofsuicide car blasts and gunmen that killed at least a dozen in an attack ona counterterrorism center in Aden. – Newsweek