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| See also: | Other events of 2018 History of Saudi Arabia | ||||
The following lists events in the year 2018 in Saudi Arabia .
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| See also: | Other events of 2018 History of Saudi Arabia | ||||
The following lists events in the year 2018 in Saudi Arabia .
Riyadh, formerly known as Hajr al-Yamamah, is the capital and largest city of Saudi Arabia. It is also the capital of the Riyadh Province and the centre of the Riyadh Governorate.
The House of Saud is the ruling royal family of Saudi Arabia. It is composed of the descendants of Muhammad bin Saud, founder of the Emirate of Diriyah, known as the First Saudi state (1727–1818), and his brothers, though the ruling faction of the family is primarily led by the descendants of Abdulaziz bin Abdul Rahman, the modern founder of Saudi Arabia. It forms a subtribe of the larger prominent ancient Banu Hanifa tribe of Arabia, of which well known 7th century Arabian theologist Maslama ibn Ḥabīb originates. The most influential position of the royal family is the King of Saudi Arabia, an absolute monarch. The family in total is estimated to comprise 10,000 to 20,000 members; however, the majority of power, influence and wealth is possessed by a group of about 2,000 of them. Some estimates of the royal family's wealth measure their net worth at anywhere from as low as $500 billion to as high as $3 trillion. This figure includes the market capitalization of Saudi Aramco, the state oil and gas company, and its vast assets in fossil fuel reserves, making them the wealthiest family in the world and the wealthiest in recorded history.
Sultan bin Salman Al Saud is a Saudi prince and former Royal Saudi Air Force pilot who flew aboard the American STS-51-G Space Shuttle mission as a payload specialist. He is the first member of a royal family to fly in space, the first Arab to fly in space, and the first Muslim to fly in space, as well as the youngest person ever to fly on the Space Shuttle. On 27 December 2018, he was appointed as chairman of the Board of Directors of the Saudi Space Commission at the rank of minister. He is the eldest surviving son of King Salman.
Ahmed bin Abdulaziz Al Saud is a member of House of Saud who served as deputy minister of interior from 1975 to 2012 and briefly as minister of interior in 2012. He was detained in March 2020 on the orders of his brother and nephew, King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, respectively, and charged with treason.
Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud is King of Saudi Arabia, reigning since 2015 and had previously served as Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia from 2015 to 2022. The 25th son of King Abdulaziz, the founder of Saudi Arabia, he assumed the throne on 23 January 2015. Prior to his accession, he was Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia from 18 June 2012 to 23 January 2015. Salman is the third oldest living head of state and the oldest living monarch besides being the country's first head of state born after the unification of Saudi Arabia. He has a reported personal wealth of at least $18 billion, which makes him the third wealthiest royal in the world and one of the wealthiest individuals in the world.
Fahd bin Salman Al Saud was a Saudi royal, businessman, and thoroughbred racer.
Russia–Saudi Arabia relations are the bilateral relations between Russian Federation and Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The two countries are referred to as the two petroleum superpowers and account for about a quarter of the world's crude oil production between them.
The Saudi Council of Ministers is the cabinet of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It is led by the King. The council consists of the king, the Crown Prince, and cabinet ministers. The Crown Prince is also the Prime minister and Chairman of the Council of Ministers. Since 2015, there are 23 ministers with portfolio and seven ministers of state, two of whom have special responsibilities. All members of the council are appointed by royal decree.
Abdulaziz bin Salman Al Saud is a Saudi royal and politician who has served as the Saudi Arabian minister of energy since September 2019. He is the first royal to serve as energy minister. He was the assistant oil minister of Saudi Arabia between 2005 and 2017. In 2017, he was made state minister for energy affairs.
Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud is a member of the Saudi royal family. He has been detained without explanation since January 2018 as part of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's 2017–2019 Saudi Arabian purge.
Turki bin Abdullah Al Saud is the seventh son of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. He served as deputy governor and then, governor of Riyadh Province from 2013 to 29 January 2015. He was one of the 11 princes detained in November 2017 by Mohammad bin Salman as a part of his anti-corruption drive on accusations of corruption in the Riyadh Metro project and taking advantage of his influence to award contracts to his own companies. It was reported in August 2023 that after a trial he was sentenced to 17 years in prison.
Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, colloquially known by his initials MBS or MbS, is Crown Prince and Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia. He is also the chairman of the Council of Economic and Development Affairs and the chairman of the Council of Political and Security Affairs. He is considered the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, being deemed as such even before his appointment as prime minister in 2022. He was minister of defense from 2015 to 2022. He is the seventh son of King Salman.
Abdulaziz bin Abdul Rahman Al Saud (1875–1953), the founder and first king of Saudi Arabia, also called Ibn Saud, was very young when he first got married. However, his wife died shortly after their marriage. Ibn Saud remarried at eighteen and his firstborn child was Prince Turki I. He had 45 sons of whom 36 survived to adulthood and had children of their own. He also had many daughters. He is thought to have had 22 wives.
Khalid bin Salman Al Saud is a Saudi Arabian diplomat, and politician who serves as the Saudi Arabian minister of defense. He was appointed defense minister on 27 September 2022. He is the tenth child and ninth son of King Salman and the younger brother of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
The 2017–19 Saudi Arabian purge was the mass arrest of a number of prominent Saudi Arabian princes, government ministers, and business people in Saudi Arabia on 4 November 2017 and the following few weeks after the creation of an anti-corruption committee led by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
On 2 October 2018, Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi dissident journalist, was killed by agents of the Saudi government at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey. Khashoggi was ambushed and strangled by a 15-member squad of Saudi operatives. His body was dismembered and disposed of. The consulate had been secretly bugged by the Turkish government and Khashoggi's final moments were captured in audio recordings, transcripts of which were subsequently made public.
The Tiger Squad, officially called the Rapid Intervention Force, is a protective security unit under the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman. According to an unnamed source interviewed by the London-based online news outlet Middle East Eye following the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi in October 2018 and a BBC source inside Saudi Arabia who has a relative in the squad, it is a Saudi team that consists of approximately fifty Saudi officers.
Mohammed bin Saud Al Kabeer was a Saudi royal and businessman. He was a nephew of King Abdulaziz. He was the patriarch of the Al Kabeer clan and a senior prince due to his in-depth tribal knowledge and connections. His nickname was Shaqran.
Events in the year 2021 in Saudi Arabia.
Sultana bint Turki Al Sudairi was a Saudi royal. She was the cousin and first wife of Prince Salman bin Abdulaziz. Three years after her death, Sultana's husband became king of Saudi Arabia.