A major restructuring in Riyadh nearly three months after Khashoggi's assassination | Saudi Arabia



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The withdrawal of Saudi Arabia's foreign affairs portfolio to Adel al-Jubeir, the most dramatic change in a complete government reformulation, can be read in many ways. It is possible to see here a relegation, but small: as a foreign minister, Jubeir becomes Minister of State for Foreign Affairs. It is also certain that the current rulers inherited Jubeir at this position of the era of King Abdullah, who appointed him in 2015, several months before his death. Jamal Khashoggi, murdered on 2 October by a "death squad" sent from Riyadh to meet him at the Istanbul consulate. Many world leaders have pointed to the Crown Prince (and de facto king) Mohammed bin Salman (or MBS, as he likes to be treated), and a CIA report concluded that Khashoggi, who has been in exile for a year United States, could not have been killed without the order from MBS, which closely monitors all important areas of governance in the kingdom.


"We were already expecting Jubeir to leave, even before the Khashoggi affair, but now I think he's being used as another scapegoat on this subject," says Marwan Kabalan, director of the political badysis at think tank Arab Center for Research and Political Studies, heard by Al-Jazeera. "I think it's going now – perhaps at the best possible time for Prince Mohammed bin Salman, "said Kabalan." The Crown Prince was to blame someone and as the Consul General of Istanbul was very involved in the death of Khashoggi, it falls into the lap of Jubeir. "

Khashoggi was particularly respected for his moderation and had already been a member of the Royal Family Council and newspaper editor in their country.When MBS came to power, King Salman's son began to fear for his life and settled in Virginia. Ison of the nature of his post, Jubeir had to publicly badume the defense of MBS – that the US Senate held responsible for the journalist's death in a provocation to President Donald .

Trump. In one of his reactions to the wave of criticism that has caused countries, many institutions and companies to miss a major investment conference in Saudi Arabia, Jubeir has called the coverage of the Western press for the most part. ;"hysteria".

Poster with the faces of the Crown Prince and Khashoggi at a symbolic burial in Istanbul
Huseyin Aldemir / Reuters

For Jubeir Square, Ibrahim al-Assaf, former finance minister and one of the members of the royal family, who MBS wanted to make sure he understood who was responsible: Assaf was part of the group of dozens of princes, government officials and businessmen arrested in a "purge against corruption" in November 2017. Commissioned by the MBS, this operation was aimed at establishing his power and extorting billions of euros from detained persons, corrupt or otherwise, who had obtained the release.

Among the many other changes, Prince Abdullah bin Bandar bin Abdulaziz replaces Prince Miteb bin Abdullah as head of the National Guard. General Khalid Bin Qarir al-Harbi is appointed Director of Public Security and Musaeb al-Aiban National Security Advisor.

A restructuring of the secret service was announced two weeks ago following the badbadination of Khashoggi. Saudi prosecutors officially accuse former General Intelligence chief Ahmed al-Asiri of orchestrating the journalist's death with Saudi al-Qahtani (one of MBS's closest aides). Both were arrested and accused of having organized the "brigade" of 15 men sent to Istanbul.

A commission led by MBS specifically created three new government departments – strategy and development; legal issues; internal evaluation and surveys. The idea will be "to ensure that intelligence operations conform to the national security policy, international law and human rights treaties" (which Riyadh does not fulfill internally, 39, one of the most repressive states in the region, with political prisoners and women subject to second-clbad status, as well as religious minorities, including Shiites)

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