Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud awaits the arrival of then German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier at the royal palace in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 19 October 2015. Getty Images
Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud awaits the arrival of then German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier at the royal palace in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 19 October 2015. Getty Images

2015 - The accession of King Salman

Short Url
Updated 19 April 2025
Follow

2015 - The accession of King Salman

2015 - The accession of King Salman
  • His rise to the throne marked the start of an ambitious new chapter for the Kingdom

RIYADH: The Saudi Arabia in which my two daughters are growing up today is a very different country to the one in which they were born. 

On Jan. 23, 2015, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia began a momentous new chapter in its history with the accession to the throne of King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud. 

At the time, my daughter Nahed was just two-and-a-half years old, and not overly concerned with grand affairs of state; Salma, her 11-month-old sister, even less so. 

Now, ages 12 and 10, ambitious and daring, they are growing up in a Saudi Arabia in which all doors are open to them, secure in the knowledge that only hard work and ambition stands between them and the realization of all their dreams. 

Of life in the Kingdom in which their mother grew up, they know only what their elders tell them. And that, for me, as a mother and a Saudi woman empowered by the sweeping transformation of the Kingdom that has been achieved in just 10 short years, will perhaps prove to be King Salman’s greatest legacy. 

For all Saudis, the passing of a king is a moment of great sadness, and so it was on Jan. 23, 2015, with the death of King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud, who had reigned since 2005 and was a much beloved ruler who cared deeply for his people. 

As always, however, the blow of the loss of a monarch was tempered by the passing of the torch to his successor, a comforting moment of continuity and hope for a people united by a tradition of leadership which, for the best part of a century, has always been steadfastly loyal and caring toward its citizens. 

How we wrote it




Arab News’ five-page spread covered King Salman’s ascension amid mourning for his predecessor King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz’s passing.

Born on Dec. 31, 1935, in Riyadh, the man who would become King Salman was the 25th son of King Abdulaziz, the unifier of modern Saudi Arabia. Educated at the prestigious Princes’ School, he was immersed in the values of leadership and public service from an early age, and his career in governance began in 1954 when, at the age of just 19, he was appointed deputy governor of Riyadh Province. 

A year later, he assumed the position of governor, a role in which he would serve two terms, from 1955 to 1960, and from 1963 to 2011.

During more than five decades as governor of Riyadh, the future king transformed the capital from a modest city of 200,000 inhabitants into a thriving metropolis, home to more than 7 million people; a symbol of its progress and a testament to his ability to inspire change and growth. 

Today, as I drive through the bustling streets of the capital, I am reminded of the profound changes that began under his governance, changes that laid the foundations for the ongoing modernization of the entire Kingdom. 

King Salman’s path to the throne was paved with a series of pivotal roles that showcased his leadership skills. In 2011, he was appointed minister of defense, in which position he spearheaded the modernization of the Saudi military and bolstered national security. 

His appointment as crown prince in 2012, following the passing of Crown Prince Naif bin Abdulaziz, was recognition of his decades of public service and unwavering commitment to the Kingdom. 

The coronation of King Salman in 2015 as the seventh monarch of Saudi Arabia was greeted with optimism, as he pledged to uphold the legacy of his predecessors while steering the nation toward a future defined by innovation, inclusivity and global engagement. 

Key Dates

  • 1

    King Salman born in Riyadh, the 25th son of King Abdulaziz Al-Saud, founder of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

  • 2

    He is appointed deputy governor of Riyadh.

    Timeline Image March 1954

  • 3

    Becomes governor of Riyadh; first term lasts 5 years.

    Timeline Image April 1955

  • 4

    Second term as governor of Riyadh begins; he remains in the position until 2011.

    Timeline Image February 1963

  • 5

    Appointed minister of defense.

    Timeline Image Nov. 5, 2011

  • 6

    Succeeds King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz as king of Saudi Arabia.

    Timeline Image Jan. 23, 2015

His reign has been marked by bold, forward-thinking initiatives that have reshaped the trajectory of the Kingdom. He is the sixth son of the nation’s founder to occupy the throne, but also the first Saudi monarch to pass the torch to a new generation. 

On June 21, 2017, King Salman appointed his son, Prince Mohammed bin Salman, as crown prince, in the process not only ensuring a stable line of succession but also paving the way for a dramatic transformation of the Kingdom. 

On April 25, 2016, while he was still deputy crown prince, Prince Mohammed, in his role as chairperson of the Council of Economic and Development Affairs, had unveiled Vision 2030, describing it as “an ambitious yet achievable blueprint, which expresses our long-term goals and expectations and reflects our country’s strengths and capabilities.” 

The aim, he said, was to build “a better country, fulfilling our dream of prosperity and unlocking the talent, potential and dedication of our young men and women.” 

Vision 2030, the foundation upon which many of the Kingdom’s great transformative projects are now being built, was endorsed by the Council of Ministers under the chairmanship of King Salman. 

This blueprint set out not only to diversify the national economy, thereby reducing the dependence on oil and fostering sustainable development, but also to transform the Kingdom socially. 

Over the past decade we have seen a series of momentous social and economic reforms under King Salman, in many cases driven through by his son, the crown prince, with his father’s blessing. 




Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdul Aziz greeted by well-wishers during a ritual ceremony due to be a symbolic pledge of allegiance on January 23, 2015 at a royal palace in Riyadh's Al-Deera neighbourhood. SPA

Women have been granted the right to drive, travel and establish businesses independently; a long-standing ban on cinemas has been lifted; several economic reforms and megaprojects designed to diversify the national economy have been launched; and Saudi Arabia has been opened up to the world, both for global investment and as an international destination for tourism, sport and culture. 

Beyond his domestic achievements, King Salman’s humanitarian efforts have had a profound global impact. As chairperson of the Saudi aid agency KSrelief, established in 2015, he has overseen more than 3,300 projects in 105 countries that have provided critical aid to millions in need. 

These efforts have not only cemented the Kingdom’s role as a global humanitarian leader but also serve as a reflection of the king’s deeply held belief in the importance of compassion and solidarity. 

As he enters the second decade of his reign, King Salman’s legacy — one of visionary leadership, transformative change and unwavering dedication to his people — is already secure. 

His reign has been defined by a commitment to progress, inclusivity and innovation, setting the stage for a brighter future for Saudi Arabia and its people. As the Kingdom continues to navigate the complexities of the 21st century under his leadership, his example serves as a guiding light, inspiring future generations to build on the foundations he has laid. 

As for my daughters, blessed by the empowerment of women that is one of the pillars of Vision 2030, they now understand that it is thanks to King Salman and his son, the crown prince, that they are growing up in a “new” Saudi Arabia, one in which women are fulfilling their potential as business executives and owners, board members, ambassadors and even government ministers. 

They know, as King Salman knew, that in years gone by Saudi women never lacked talent, they merely lacked opportunity. 

  • Noor Nugali is deputy editor-in-chief of Arab News. 


Pakistan says eyeing transit hub role to connect South, Central Asian economies

Pakistan says eyeing transit hub role to connect South, Central Asian economies
Updated 14 min 53 sec ago
Follow

Pakistan says eyeing transit hub role to connect South, Central Asian economies

Pakistan says eyeing transit hub role to connect South, Central Asian economies
  • Pakistan Communications Minister Abdul Aleem Khan attends Kazan trade and investment forum in Russia 
  • Minister says Islamabad wants to increase landlocked Central Asian countries’ access to warm waters for trade 

Islamabad: Pakistan’s Communications Minister Abdul Aleem Khan has said that Islamabad aims to emerge as a key transit hub connecting the economies of South and Central Asia, state-run media reported on Sunday. 

Pakistan has been working to strengthen its position as a key trade and transit hub, connecting landlocked Central Asian states to the global market through its strategic location. Last year saw a surge in visits, investment discussions and economic activity between Pakistan and Central Asian nations as well as Gulf countries. 

Khan was speaking at the “Russia-Islamic World: Kazan Forum” being held from May 13-18 in the country’s Kazan region. This forum is the main platform for economic cooperation between Russia and Islamic countries as per its website. 

“Minister for Communications Abdul Aleem Khan says Pakistan aims to emerge as a key transit hub, bridging the economies of South Asia and Central Asia,” state broadcaster Radio Pakistan reported. 

Addressing the closing session of the Kazan Forum, Khan noted the Gwadar Port in southwestern Pakistan has already started shipment and cargo services. He added that Islamabad intends to facilitate landlocked Central Asia’s access to warm waters.

Khan spoke about Pakistan’s strategic plans to connect its Karachi, Quetta and Gwadar cities with Central Asia and Europe through road networks. 

“Abdul Aleem Khan welcomed the holding of the Kazan Forum and reaffirmed Pakistan’s strong commitment to playing an active role in regional development,” the report said. 

Pakistan’s recent push to engage Central Asian countries and the Middle East takes place as Islamabad seeks to escape a prolonged macroeconomic crisis that has drained its country of financial resources and weakened its balance of payment position and currency. 

Islamabad has sought to attract international investment in key economic sectors since it narrowly avoided a sovereign default in 2023 before a last-gasp International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout helped it avoid that. 


Indian space agency’s satellite mission fails due to technical issue in launch vehicle

Indian space agency’s satellite mission fails due to technical issue in launch vehicle
Updated 21 min 16 sec ago
Follow

Indian space agency’s satellite mission fails due to technical issue in launch vehicle

Indian space agency’s satellite mission fails due to technical issue in launch vehicle
  • The EOS-09 Earth observation satellite took off on board the PSLV-C61 launch vehicle from the Sriharikota space center in southern India on Sunday morning

NEW DELHI: The Indian space agency’s mission to launch into orbit a new Earth observation satellite failed after the launch vehicle encountered a technical issue during the third stage of flight, officials said Sunday.
The EOS-09 Earth observation satellite took off on board the PSLV-C61 launch vehicle from the Sriharikota space center in southern India on Sunday morning.
“During the third stage ... there was a fall in the chamber pressure of the motor case, and the mission could not be accomplished,” said V. Narayanan, chief of the Indian Space Research Organization.
Active in space research since the 1960s, India has launched satellites for itself and other countries, and successfully put one in orbit around Mars in 2014.
After a failed attempt to land on the moon in 2019, India became the first country to land a spacecraft near the moon’s south pole in 2023 in a historic voyage to uncharted territory that scientists believe could hold reserves of frozen water. The mission was dubbed as a technological triumph for the world’s most populous nation.


Pakistan, Iran agree to enhance trade and security cooperation

Pakistan, Iran agree to enhance trade and security cooperation
Updated 18 May 2025
Follow

Pakistan, Iran agree to enhance trade and security cooperation

Pakistan, Iran agree to enhance trade and security cooperation
  • Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian discuss bilateral cooperation over phone 
  • Sharif thanks Iranian president for Tehran’s role in defusing South Asia tensions between India and Pakistan 

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian this week agreed to enhance cooperation in trade, security and connectivity between the two countries, a statement from Sharif’s office said. 

Pakistan and Iran have had a history of rocky relations despite several commercial pacts, with Islamabad being historically closer to Saudi Arabia and the United States.

Their highest profile agreement is a stalled gas supply deal signed in 2010 to build a pipeline from Iran’s South Fars gas field to Pakistan’s southern provinces of Balochistan and Sindh. Pakistan and Iran are also often at odds over instability on their shared porous border, with both countries routinely trading blame for not rooting out militancy.

“They agreed to enhance cooperation in all areas of shared interest, especially trade, connectivity, security and people-to-people contacts,” the Pakistani Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said regarding a phone call between Sharif and Pezeshkian on Saturday. 

It said the Iranian president invited Sharif to undertake an official visit to Tehran, which the Pakistani premier accepted. 

The two officials also discussed Pakistan’s recent conflict with India, which saw at least 70 killed on both sides last week. India and Pakistan attacked each other with drones, missiles, artillery fire and fighter jets before Washington brokered a ceasefire between the two countries on May 10. 

Sharif thanked Pezeshkian for Iran’s “sincere and brotherly diplomatic efforts” to defuse tensions in South Asia. He reaffirmed Pakistan’s “firm resolve” to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity at all costs.

“The Prime Minister emphasized that Jammu and Kashmir dispute remained the root cause of instability in South Asia. He called for its just resolution, in accordance with the UN Security Council’s resolutions and the aspirations of the Kashmiri people, as key to enduring peace in the region,” the statement said. 


Indian vets to be re-deployed as security guards in Kashmir, says Delhi

Indian vets to be re-deployed as security guards in Kashmir, says Delhi
Updated 18 May 2025
Follow

Indian vets to be re-deployed as security guards in Kashmir, says Delhi

Indian vets to be re-deployed as security guards in Kashmir, says Delhi
  • Around 70 people were killed in violence last week in worst India-Pakistan fighting in decades
  • Around 4,000 veterans have been “identified” as non-combatant volunteers, says Indian government

Srinagar, India: Military veterans will be redeployed as security guards in Indian-administered Kashmir, New Delhi said on Saturday, a week after it reached a ceasefire with Pakistan to end their most serious conflict in decades.

Around 70 people were killed in the violence, which was sparked by an attack on tourists by gunmen in Indian-administered Kashmir last month that New Delhi accused Islamabad of backing — a charge it denies.

The government of Jammu and Kashmir approved a “proposal for mobilizing Ex-Servicemen (ESM) to safeguard vital infrastructure across the Union Territory,” according to a government press release.

Around 4,000 veterans have been “identified” as non-combatant volunteers, out of which 435 have licensed personal weapons, it said.

This will help by “significantly enhancing the capacity to respond effectively to localized security situations,” the government added.

Veterans will work in “static guard” roles, focusing on “presence-based deterrence and local coordination.”

India already has an estimated half a million soldiers permanently deployed in the contested region that has been at the heart of several wars between the nuclear-armed neighbors, who administer separate portions of the divided territory.

Rebels in India’s Jammu and Kashmir have waged an insurgency since 1989, seeking independence or a merger with Pakistan.

Fighting had decreased since 2019, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government revoked the territory’s partial autonomy and imposed direct control from New Delhi.

But last year, thousands of additional troops, including special forces, were deployed across the territory’s mountainous south following a series of deadly rebel attacks that had left more than 50 soldiers dead in three years.

A similar veteran volunteer program took place with 2,500 veterans during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the government.


Trump claims the US is the only country with birthright citizenship. It’s not

Trump claims the US is the only country with birthright citizenship. It’s not
Updated 18 May 2025
Follow

Trump claims the US is the only country with birthright citizenship. It’s not

Trump claims the US is the only country with birthright citizenship. It’s not
  • As enshrined in the US Constitution, citizenship is granted to anyone born in the US, regardless of the parents’ immigration status
  • Most countries with unconditional birthright citizenship are concentrated in the Americas. The rest are in Africa and Asia

As the Supreme Court prepared to hear arguments Thursday on whether to allow President Donald Trump’s restrictions on birthright citizenship to take effect, he falsely claimed on Truth Social that the United States is the only country that offers such a right.
Trump signed an executive order on Jan. 20, the first day of his second term, that would deny citizenship to children who are born to people who are living in the US illegally or temporarily. It has been put on nationwide holds by lower court orders.
The administration is now appealing, on an emergency basis, the authority of individual judges to issue these rulings, known as nationwide, or universal, injunctions. The constitutionality of the executive order itself is not yet before the court.
Here’s a closer look at the facts.
Trump, discussing birthright citizenship in a Truth Social post: “The United States of America is the only Country in the World that does this, for what reason, nobody knows.”
The facts: This is not true. About 30 countries, including the US, offer unconditional birthright citizenship, according to the CIA World Factbook and the Library of Congress. Birthright citizenship was enshrined in the Constitution after the Civil War to ensure that formerly enslaved people would be citizens.

“The statement is pretty obviously wrong,” said Ilya Somin, a professor of law at George Mason University who is an expert on constitutional law and migration rights. “Many countries have birthright citizenship, though in some of them the rules are different from those in the US.”
Birthright citizenship is a principle known as jus soli or “right of the soil.” It bases citizenship on a person being born within a country’s territory. In contrast, the principle of jus sanguinis or “right of blood” determines citizenship based on the citizenship of one’s parents or other ancestors.
Citizenship is granted to anyone born in the US, regardless of the parents’ immigration status. Only children of diplomats, who have allegiance to another government, and of enemies present in the US during hostile occupation do not qualify. Those born to parents of sovereign Native American tribes were also excluded until the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924.
Most countries with unconditional birthright citizenship, among them Canada and Mexico, are concentrated in the Americas. The rest are in Africa and Asia. Some countries offer citizenship to those born in their territory to noncitizen parents only under certain conditions, such as the legal status of their parents or the age of the person applying for citizenship based on place of birth.

These are: Antigua & Barbados, Argentina, Azerbaijan, Barbados, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominica, El Salvador, The Gambia, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Honduras, Jamaica, Lesotho, Mauritius, Mexico, Nepal, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Saint Kitts & Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, Tuvalu, Uruguay, Venezuela.

The first sentence of the Constitution’s 14th Amendment, often referred to as the Citizenship Clause, guarantees birthright citizenship. It states: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”
This clause effectively overturned the notorious Dred Scott decision of 1857, in which the Supreme Court held that Black people, no matter whether or not they were enslaved, were not citizens. It was ratified, along with the rest of the 14th Amendment, in 1868 after it was passed by the Senate in 1866. The Civil War ended in 1865.
Trump’s executive order on birthright citizenship conflicts with a Supreme Court decision from 1898 that held that the Citizenship Clause made citizens of all children born on US soil with narrow exceptions that are not at issue in the case currently before the court.
The justices are also considering appeals from the Trump administration on several other issues, many related to immigration.