RIYADH: Saudi Arabia on Saturday named a princess as its first woman ambassador to the United States.

Princess Rima bint Bandar replaced Prince Khalid bin Salman, the younger brother of the powerful crown prince who was appointed deputy defence minister in a flurry of late-night royal decrees announced on state media.

Princess Rima, the daughter of a former ambassador to the US, has been a leading advocate for women’s empowerment in the kingdom, which has faced criticism over the recent jailing of women activists.

The princess previously worked at the kingdom’s General Sports Authority, where she led a campaign to increase women’s participation in sports.

“Princess Rima becomes the first female ambassador in Saudi history and the first female with a rank of minister — a strong signal to the integration of women into the government and workforce,” Ali Shihabi, founder of the pro-Saudi think-tank Arabia Foundation, said on Twitter.

Brother of crown prince appointed as deputy defence minister

Prince Khalid, a son of the king who served as ambassador since 2017, had been expected to leave Washington for some time — particularly after an outcry over the murder of a Saudi journalist in Turkey.

His new appointment as deputy defence minister comes as a military coalition led by Saudi Arabia remains bogged down in a four-year conflict in neighbouring Yemen.

A separate royal decree on Saturday ordered a one-month salary bonus for frontline military officials on the kingdom’s southern border.

Prince Khalid, a former Saudi air force pilot, takes his post a year after Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman — who also serves as the defence minister — announced a military reform plan and a dramatic overhaul of top defence commanders.

“As the Yemen war drags on and the military reform programme continues to move painstakingly slow, Prince Khalid is gaining a difficult portfolio but one that is critical to his father, brother and the kingdom,” Becca Wasser, a policy analyst at the US-based RAND Corporation, said.

“Prince Mohammad has struggled to delegate authority within this file which has rendered some efforts — chiefly military reform — stagnant, and Prince Khalid’s appointment may be an attempt to reinvigorate these initiatives.”

Shihabi said Prince Khalid would virtually have the same authority as the defence minister, shouldering some of the burden on the crown prince.

A key challenge for Princess Rima will be to win over US lawmakers, who earlier this month voted overwhelmingly to end American involvement in the Saudi war effort in Yemen, dealing a rebuke to President Donald Trump who publicly threw his support behind the crown prince in the aftermath of the journalist’s murder.

Published in Dawn, February 25th, 2019