The office was created along with the Council of Ministers on 9 October 1953, by decree of King Saud. Due to unrest within the royal family over his rule, Saud was forced to appoint his half-brother, Crown Prince Faisal, as prime minister. An ongoing power struggle between the two led to Faisal's resignation in 1960, allowing Saud to reclaim the reins of government, but continued discontent saw Faisal return as prime minister in 1962. After the deposition of Saud in 1964, Faisal succeeded him as king, while remaining prime minister. From that point until the appointment of Mohammed bin Salman as prime minister by King Salman, the two offices were merged.[2] Since the reign of King Khalid, others have done much of the "heavy lifting" as the king was either unwilling or unable to carry the workload, especially as the kingdom became a gerontocracy during the 1990s and 2000s. Royal favorites achieved power to become de facto prime ministers. The current one is the King's son Mohammad, who is his father's top aide.
King Saud created the post of Prime Minister for himself, and appointed Crown Prince Faisal Prime Minister in 1954. The two would engage in a power struggle which would ultimately lead to Saud's abdication of the throne and exile.
Crown Prince Fahd became de facto Prime Minister during Khalid's reign (1975–1982) and through his own until suffering a stroke in 1996. Second Prime Minister who was not the King at the time of his appointment.
Crown Prince Abdullah served as de facto Prime Minister after Fahd's stroke in 1996, de jure from 9 October 2005 to 23 January 2015. Some regard Khaled al-Tuwaijri as a de facto Prime Minister from 9 October 2005 to 23 January 2015.
History of the Second Deputy Prime Minister position
The honorific title of "Second Deputy Prime Minister" goes back to 1967, in order to designate who was the senior prince not excluded from the throne. The position was created by King Faisal.
In March 1965, under pressure from King Faisal and the House of Saud, crown prince Mohammed stepped down as apparent to the Saudi throne. Mohammed was known to have temper issues and drinking problems.[4][5][6] As a result, King Faisal installed Prince Khalid as crown prince. However, he was reluctant to accept the offer of King Faisal to be named crown prince several times until March 1965. In addition, Khalid asked King Faisal to remove him from the position various times. One of the speculations about Prince Khalid's selection as heir designate was his lack of predilection for politics. In short, by selecting him as heir designate the royal family could create an intra-familial consensus.[7] In 1967, crown prince Khalid expressed his desire not to preside over the Council of Ministers against King Faisal's request which led to the appointment of Prince Fahd as second deputy prime minister with the task of leading the Council meetings.[8] Prince Saad and Prince Nasir, who were older than Fahd, were set aside from the throne due to being less experienced.[9]
When King Faisal was assassinated in 1975, King Khalid designated Prince Fahd as crown prince and Prince Abdullah as second deputy prime minister.
As King Khalid became ill with old age, the question of who would succeed Abdullah as the second deputy prime minister became more pressing. Prince Abdullah was succeeded by Prince Sultan as de facto Deputy Prime Ministers of The Kingdom.
Second Deputy Prime Ministers of Saudi Arabia (1967–2017)
^M. Ehsan Ahrari (1999). "Political succession in Saudi Arabia". Comparative Strategy. 18 (1): 13–29. doi:10.1080/01495939908403160.
^"Saudi Arabia"(PDF). Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training. p. 77. Archived from the original(Country Readers Series) on 9 January 2021. Retrieved 7 January 2021.
^Simon Henderson (1994). "After King Fahd"(PDF). Washington Institute. Archived from the original(Policy Paper) on 17 May 2013. Retrieved 2 February 2013.
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