Saudi Arabia’s King Salman issued a royal order on August 8 allowing the cabinet to be convened in the absence of both him and his prime minister and crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman.
Such a meeting will be headed by the most senior cabinet member from among the descendants of King Abdul Aziz AlSaud, the founding father of the Saudi state as we know it today.
This royal order is a politically significant development. Since Mohammed bin Salman was elevated to the post of crown prince in 2017, and then to prime minister five years later, the administratively and politically critical positions of deputy crown prince and deputy prime minister have remained vacant.