In yet another cabinet reshuffle this year, Saudi Arabia just replaced its foreign minister, though it's only been 10 months since his predecessor took office.
On Wednesday, Saudi Arabia's King Salman named Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud as the kingdom's new foreign minister, relieving Ibrahim Al-Assaf from that role.
Prior to Prince Faisal's appointment as foreign minister, he served as Saudi Arabia's ambassador to Germany, a role he took in March 2019. He had previously worked as an advisor to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and senior adviser at the Saudi Embassy in Washington from 2017 till 2019. At some point in time when he worked in the defense industry, he was the chairman of a joint venture with Boeing and the Saudi government.
After the announcement, Prince Faisal praised the king's "vision ... for enhancing Saudi diplomatic work," Saudi Press Agency reported.
Former foreign minister Al-Assaf has now been appointed as minister of state and member of the cabinet. The outgoing minister had replaced Adel al-Jubeir in December 2018, meaning he hadn't sustained the role for a year prior to the recent reshuffle.
This wasn't the only change to take place. In another royal decree published on Wednesday as well, Saleh bin Nasser bin al-Ali al-Jasser replaced Nabil bin Mohammed al-Amoudi as transport minister. Saleh Mohammed Al-Othaim and Abdullah bin Sharaf Al-Ghamdi were appointed respectively deputy head and head of the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority.
This would be the second reshuffle to happen this year. In September, the kingdom hired another oil minister, though it had only been three years since the former one took the role. Since 1960, the kingdom has had five oil ministers. None of them were members of the royal family, until 2019.
Former energy minister Khalid Al-Falih was replaced by Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, King Salman's son and a veteran oil expert. According to the Financial Times, members of the royal family are not usually appointed to that position, but it seemed as though desperate times called for desperate measures.
The former energy minister was first appointed in May 2016 after the departure of the longstanding oil minister Ali Al-Naimi, who served as Saudi Arabia's oil minister for just over two decades. During his time in office, there were talks about a potential cut in oil production, which caused a spike in oil prices for an incredibly short time. In 2018, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) said it believes "demand was softening enough" to justify a potential production cut.
At the time, Al-Falih announced that Saudi Aramco, the country's national petroleum and natural gas company, will cut production by 500,000 barrels per day (bpd) in December of that year. Oil prices rose by more than 1 percent after the announcement as the price of international benchmark Brent crude rose to $70.83 a barrel. But the rise was short-lived as falling oil prices have been hitting the Saudi economy hard.
During his time as energy minister, Al-Falih did not manage to drive oil prices back up to $80 a barrel as Saudi Arabia hoped. The kingdom is more hopeful now as the newly appointed minister is known for cutting deals and negotiations with OPEC. In fact, he's been a member of the kingdom's delegation to OPEC for many years.
The appointment of the Saudi royal comes just a week after Al-Falih was also let go of his position as chairman of the giant state-owned oil company Saudi Aramco. The dramatic changes in leadership are a stepping stone for the kingdom before Aramco goes public. If it all goes as planned, it would be the world's biggest IPO (Initial Public Offering).