Saudi Arabia’s ruler has been admitted to hospital, suffering from inflammation of the gall bladder. As kingdom’s Royal Court confirmed, the 84-year-old man is also being tested at the King Faisal Specialist Hospital, Gulf Today reports.
King Salman is in a hospital due to some inflammation, said the official Saudi Press Agency quoting the brief statement. The royal press pool preferred not to provide further details. So far, the monarch is being tested at the best of the Riyad’s hospitals.
King Salman has been in power since January 2015. He is considered the last Saudi monarch of his generation of brothers who have held power since the death of their father and founder of Saudi Arabia, King Abdulaziz.
Modern Saudi Arabia is very popular, mostly thanks to the flexible and reform-loving Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS). The 34-year-old royal is a king’s successor. The young generation of the Saudi royals is an assertive and bold style of leadership, in fact, MbS is known on his consolidation of power and sidelining of potential rivals, has been controversial.
With the support of his father, Prince Mohammed has transformed the kingdom in recent years. Among the main achievements of the young prince is opening Saudi Arabia up to tourists and eroding decades of ultraconservative restrictions on entertainment and women’s rights. In addition, MbS tries to diversify the Saudi economy away from reliance on oil exports.
In its efforts to keep the stable social situation, Mohammad bin Salman has also detained dozens of activists and critics, overseen a devastating war in Yemen and rounded up top members of the royal family in his quest for power.
Saudi King is still on self-isolation
The Saudi king has not been seen in public in recent months due to social distancing guidelines and concerns over the spread of the coronavirus inside the kingdom, which has one of the largest outbreaks in the Middle East. He has been shown, however, in state-run media images attending virtual meetings with his Cabinet and held calls with world leaders.
King Salman, who oversees Islam’s holiest sites in Mecca and Medina, was a crown prince under King Abdullah and served as defence minister. For more than 50 years prior to that, he was governor of Riyadh, overseeing its evolution from a barren city to a teeming capital.
