Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud

7th King of Saudi Arabia .

He was born on December 31, 1935 as the 25th son of Ibn Saud, the first king and founding monarch of Saudi Arabia . Salman had numerous brothers, but since he was one of the seven sons born to Queen Sudairi, the king's favorite eighth wife, he formed a powerful power group called the 'Sudairi Seven' and was able to grow into a strong candidate for succession to the throne from a young age. I spent my childhood at Murabba Palace.

He received his initial education at the royal school in Riyadh , which King Ibn Saud established specifically for the education of his children . He studied Islam and Arabic, focusing on the interpretation of Wahhabism based on the Islamic jurisprudence of the Hanbali school . Like most Saudi royals of the time, he did not learn Western-style learning, and his main learning was reciting and memorizing the Quran under Wahhabi priests.

Because Salman was a member of the powerful Sudairi Seven, he was able to receive better positions than his other brothers. Therefore, he was appointed deputy governor of Riyadh Province on March 17, 1954, when he was only 18 years old, and served until April 19, 1955, assisting Prince Nayef, who was also governor and a member of the Sudairi Seven. Afterwards, he took office as governor of Riyadh from February 5, 1963 . During his time as governor, Salman contributed greatly to the growth of Riyadh, which was a small city with a population of hundreds of thousands, into a world-class metropolis. It played a key role in attracting large-scale national projects, foreign capital, and tourists, and especially placed emphasis on political and economic cooperation with Western countries. During his tenure, he actively recruited talented individuals from King Saud University as advisors.

In the process of leading Riyadh for nearly 50 years until he left office on November 5, 2011, Salman acquired excellent political skills to finely coordinate the interests within the triangular axis that controls Saudi politics: the clerical class, tribal forces, and the royal family. He was also active on the overseas diplomatic stage. In 1974, he visited Kuwait , Bahrain , and Qatar to strengthen relations with friendly countries in the Gulf region, and in 1991, he visited Canada. When I visited Montreal , I also attended the opening ceremony of an art museum. France in 1996 fly He met with President Jacques Chirac at the Elysee Palace and visited Bosnia and Herzegovina in the same year to deliver relief funds to Muslim residents. In 1998, he went on a tour of Asia, visiting Pakistan , Japan , Brunei , and China in turn.

Of course, there were not only brilliant achievements. According to Jamal Khashoggi , a Saudi journalist who was later murdered, Prince Salman, as the governor of Riyadh and the head of the Saudi Committee for Supporting the Afghan Mujahideen, recklessly provided funds to extremist Salafists, turning the war in Afghanistan into a muddy mess.

In any case, under Salman's rule, Riyadh has emerged as the wealthiest city in the Middle East and a center of trade and commerce. A large-scale expansion of the city's infrastructure, including schools, universities, and large stadiums, was also carried out during this period. Salman himself had a very deep affection for Riyadh, as it was a city he grew up with as his base for almost half a century.



In 1999, Goh Geon Kim Dae-jung visits Korea at the invitation of the Mayor of Seoul . He met with the President of the Republic of Korea , and although it was long before his ascension to the throne, it was the first time that a person who would become the King of Saudi Arabia (or his next successor) visited Korea and had a direct meeting with the President of the Republic of Korea . #

On November 5, 2011, Salman succeeded his older brother, Crown Prince Sultan, as Minister of Defense. In addition, he also served as a member of the National Security Council (NSC), and the position of governor of Riyadh, which he had held for half a century, was given to Satam bin Abdulaziz.

The prevailing analysis is that Salman's unrivaled personal capabilities played a large role in his ability to immediately establish himself as a strong successor to the throne . First, he was a natural diplomat and mediator. It was Salman who headed the 'Royal Family Council (Descendants Committee)' established by King Fahad in 2000 to resolve problems within the royal family and prevent scandals. Second, because he belonged to the so-called 'middle generation' within the royal family, he served as a stepping stone that seamlessly connected culturally and socially between the senior royals and the young princes. Lastly, while serving as governor for a long time, he had built up solid personal connections not only in the Arab world but also in the international community.

As defense minister, Salman unwaveringly pursued a policy of military intervention in Bahrain. In April 2012, he visited the United States and the United Kingdom one after another and held talks with President Barack Obama and Prime Minister David Cameron . Under his leadership, Saudi Arabia's defense budget increased explosively, reaching $67 billion in 2013, ranking fourth in the world, ahead of Britain, France, and Japan. In 2014, he led the joint airstrikes carried out by the U.S. military and Arab coalition forces to defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant located in Iraq and Syria .

On June 18, 2012, when his older brother, Crown Prince Nayef, passed away, Salman succeeded him without delay and was installed as the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, while also assuming the position of First Deputy Prime Minister. Some interpreted his ascension to crown prince and deputy prime minister as a green light that the cautious, gradual reforms pursued by King Abdullah at the time would continue in the future. On the other hand, reform-minded figures in Saudi Arabia clearly draw the line that although it is true that Salman has a more flexible and diplomatic attitude compared to other high-handed royals, that does not mean he can be viewed as a 'political reformer' in the true sense of the word. They predicted that Salman, like his predecessors, would focus on economic growth rather than political changes that would shake up the system.

On August 27, 2012, the Saudi royal family officially announced that Crown Prince Salman would lead overall state affairs during King Abdullah's overseas trip, proving his firm position. Meanwhile, he was appointed vice-chairman of the Military Service Committee in September of the same year, and in February 2013, the following year, he opened a Twitter account and began communicating with the public. He also took care of his public image by taking the lead in charity work in impoverished Muslim countries such as Somalia , Sudan , and Afghanistan .

On January 23, 2015, Salman inherited the throne at the age of 79, shortly after his half-brother King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud died of pneumonia at the age of 90.[1] Immediately after ascending the throne, Abdullah installed his half-brother Muqrin as the new crown prince.

A few days after Salman came to power, on January 30, 2015, he carried out a major cabinet reshuffle and began to erase traces of King Abdullah. Khalid bin Ali bin Abdullah al-Humaidan was appointed as the new head of intelligence. Prince Bandar bin Sultan, who was favored by the former King Abdullah, was dismissed from his position on the National Security Council, his existing position as an advisor to the king was eliminated, and even King Abdullah's sons, Turki Riyadh Governor and Mecca Governor Michal, were mercilessly kicked out of their positions. On the other hand, key officials, including Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Ali al-Naimi, Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal, and Finance Minister Ibrahim al-Assaf, were kept in place. In addition, he took care of public sentiment by giving a special bonus equivalent to two months' salary to all Saudi government officials and soldiers, including pensioners and students, and also included a romantic request to the people, 'Please do not forget me when you pray.'

In February of the same year, Salman met with Britain's Prince Charles, who was on a six-day tour of the Middle East. As time passed, in April 2021, Prince Mishal bin Majid Al Saud, who had held the position of governor of Jeddah since 1997, was appointed as an advisor to the king, receiving ministerial courtesy.

After ascending to the throne, King Salman dismissed Muqrin bin Abdul Aziz, born in 1945, the 35th son of the first King Ibn Saud, who was the next heir to the throne, from the position of crown prince, and appointed Interior Minister Muhammad bin Nayef as the new crown prince by royal decree on April 29, 2015 . Crown Prince Nayef is the son of King Salman's half-brother, Nayef bin Abdul Aziz, and is the second generational change in the succession to the throne since he succeeded to the first throne of Saudi Arabia. Since the generation of Ibn Saud's sons were all too old, the generational change itself was already predicted, but it was unclear whether the succession to the throne after Crown Prince Nayef became king would be paternal inheritance or sibling inheritance... In the end, even Crown Prince Nayef was kicked out two years later and his own son, Muhammad bin Salman, was promoted to crown prince, confirming the paternal inheritance .

Moreover, this generational change does not only have a positive side; it also has a negative side: the 'Sudairi faction', which consists of the descendants of Queen Sudairi, the 8th concubine of the first King Ibn Saud's queens, is taking control of Saudi Arabia again. # , # The current King Salman, the 5th King Fahd, and the current Crown Prince Nayef's father, Prince Nayef, are the children of Queen Sudairi, while the former King Abdullah and the deposed Prince Muqrin were not the children of Queen Sudairi.

On June 21, 2017, King Salman issued an edict ousting Nayef, the first crown prince and nephew, from the position of crown prince and making his own son , Muhammad bin Salman , crown prince. He confirmed his intention to no longer pass the throne on to his own sons in turns, but to pass it on directly to his son . Accordingly, not only the generational change in the succession to the throne, but also the succession to the throne was confirmed. # , #

In 2020, I was hospitalized for gallbladder inflammation. The surgery was said to be successful ( # ), and he was discharged from the hospital 10 days later ( # ).

The position of prime minister will be handed over to Muhammad bin Salman on September 27, 2022. # With this withdrawal from external activities, Muhammad bin Salman became the de facto leader.

Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud decided to hold a women's vote in 2015, and in December 2015 the first women's vote was held. However, due to various policies, there were many restrictions on the election campaign, such as preventing male voters from participating in face-to-face campaigns. In particular, female candidates can only communicate with male voters indirectly through male relatives.

Additionally, even if elected, the role of local council members is very limited. Local councils have no authority over the budget and only handle simple tasks such as garbage disposal or garden size restrictions, and the Saudi government has even eliminated Saudi women who advocated for women's right to drive from candidate screening. However, three years later, in 2018, women were allowed to drive.

Being a member of the National Assembly may seem like a high-level position, but you can think of it as just a sanitation worker rather than a member of the National Assembly. The people who act as 'parliamentarians' are a very small number of high-level politicians in the cabinet.

Saudi Arabian women have no women's dressing room in the department store, so they have to change their clothes in the bathroom.[2] , I can't touch Kuran when I'm on menstruation . When I went out, I had to cover my whole body by Abaya , not open a bank account alone, and until the revision of the 2018 law, it was the only country in the world that women in the world were banned.[3] Although college graduates and occupations are allowed, they must be permission from husbands, fathers, and male brothers for basic life, such as registering in school, finding a job, or traveling abroad.

It is taboo for women to talk or even sit together with unfamiliar men. So, if a man and a woman are side by side in a public place, such as a shopping mall or on the street, and somehow they do not seem to be a couple , religious police will inevitably show up and ask them to present their ID cards. If they are not married, the native national will be put behind bars and the foreigner will be deported.

Saudi Arabia strictly interprets and applies Islamic law and sentences the death penalty for crimes such as murder , rape , drug smuggling, as well as adultery and apostasy , and also executes juvenile offenders under the age of 18. Most executions in Saudi Arabia are by beheading , and some are burned at the stake . The Saudi Arabian government sometimes discloses parts of executed bodies to the public under the pretext of preventing crimes .

However, the problem is that there are cases where people who are clearly guilty are not punished, but are accused of the crime and even tortured to death. Amnesty International is criticizing Saudi Arabia for forcing confessions from prisoners through merciless torture and sentencing them to death. In fact, in August 2014, Saudi Arabian authorities arrested two brothers on charges of smuggling marijuana and tortured them mercilessly to obtain confessions. The brothers were eventually sentenced to death . Amnesty International attempted to contact the Saudi Ministers of the Interior and Justice to confirm the facts, but received no response, and Saudi Arabian authorities are refusing to allow Amnesty researchers into the country to avoid these incidents becoming known. #

Amnesty International, an international human rights group, said that at least 151 people have been executed in Saudi Arabia since 2015, and that this figure is the highest in 20 years. In addition, it was confirmed that half of the criminals who were executed in this way over the past 30 years were foreigners. Amnesty International stated that the reason so many foreigners were executed was because many of the death row inmates were not good at Arabic and could not understand the trial situation in court. In particular, Abdullah al-Zaher, who was arrested in March 2012 at the age of only 15 for participating in a protest march against the government, was brutally tortured and soon beheaded . #

It is often said that, like Chun Doo-hwan 's 3S policy, he uses sports to divert people 's attention, but the Saudi royal family is in fact a similar state system to North Korea , so there is no need for such a system. He only cared about running the government. Like most royal families, they are traditional, unprincipled, and conservative, so there are those who look down on artistic and physical skills , viewing them as a bit of a buffoon . It is natural since they are from the royal family, which is not a metaphor but a real royal family from the moment they were born. I am interested in archeology and am still researching it. He collects a lot of classic books, and his collection is said to be worth 1 trillion won.

The economic situation is in a bad situation, and according to Saudi Arabia 's financial announcement, Saudi Arabia recorded a 367 billion won in fiscal deficit in 2015 . As low oil prices continued, at the end of 2015, they had to implement tightening policies such as cutting subsidies for electricity and capital.

The general public is afraid of evaluating the monarch, but it does not suppress the general people. In a way, it is a royal family .

In March 2015, Saudi Arabia intervened in the civil war in Yemen and carried out airstrikes against Houthi rebels, a Shia armed group, and former President Ali Abdullah Saleh 's forces. After forming a coalition involving 10 Sunni countries, they launched 'Operation Resolute Storm', which was also the first large-scale military operation conducted independently by the Saudi Air Force against another country since the Gulf War . They spent a huge amount of money to support the Sunni government forces that were being pushed back by the Houthi rebels, but they were struggling as they suffered repeated defeats from the Houthi rebels, whose equipment was inferior to that of the Saudi army.

Military intervention in Bahrain, which fell into a revolutionary crisis due to the 2011 Arab Spring and the 2011 Bahrain Uprising , which saw the Shia people rise up, is continuing as per the previous king.

As soon as the new year of 2016 dawned, on January 2, Shiite leader Nimr Bakr al -Nimr was arrested by al-Qaeda on charges of leading anti-government protests and terrorism. He was executed along with terrorists , and angry Iranian Shiite hard-line conservative protesters attacked the Saudi embassy and consulate general in protest, sparking a conflict.

During the Arab Spring, Saudi Arabia embarrassed the West by sponsoring the army to conquer the Sunni rebel coalition led by the Salaf- affiliated al-Nusra Front and the Islamist militant group Ahrar al-Sham in Syria, which entered civil war. . #

On January 6, Saudi Arabia declared severance of diplomatic relations with Iran. For further details, see the Saudi Arabia-Iran conflict section.

There is an analysis that this hardline diplomatic line against Iran is being carried out under the leadership of Muhammad bin Salman with King Salman's connivance.