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 King Abdullah died early on Friday after a short illness.
By appointing his youngest half-brother Muqrin, 69, as Crown Prince
and nephew Mohammed bin Nayef, 55, as Deputy Crown Prince, Salman
has swiftly quelled speculation about internal palace rifts at a
moment of great regional turmoil.
Oil prices jumped in an immediate reaction as news of Abdullah's
death added to uncertainty in energy markets. [O/R]
Salman, thought to be 79, takes over as the ultimate authority in a
country that faces long-term domestic challenges compounded by the
plunging price of oil in recent months and the rise of the Islamic
State militant group in Iraq and Syria, which vows to toppled the Al
Saud.
Salman must navigate a white-hot rivalry with Shi'ite Muslim power
Iran playing out in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Lebanon and Bahrain, open
conflict in two neighboring states, a threat from Islamist militants
and bumpy relations with the United States.
In his first speech as king, shown live on Saudi television, Salman
pledged to maintain the same approach to ruling the world's top oil
exporter and birthplace of Islam as his predecessors and called for
unity among Arab states.
"We will continue, God willing, to hold the straight course that
this country has followed since its establishment by the late King
Abdulaziz," he said.
 Mohammed bin Nayef becomes the first grandson of the kingdom's
founding monarch, King Abdulaziz, known as Ibn Saud, to take an
established place in the line of succession.
All Saudi kings since Abdulaziz's death in 1953 have been his sons
and the move into the next generation had raised the prospect of a
palace power struggle. King Salman also appointed his own son,
Mohammed bin Salman, Defense Minister and head of the royal court.
Reputedly pragmatic and adept at managing the delicate balance of
clerical, tribal, royal and Western interests that factor into Saudi
policy making, Salman appears unlikely to change the kingdom's
approach to foreign affairs or energy sales.
Despite rumors about Salman's health and strength, diplomats who
have attended meetings between the new king and foreign leaders over
the past year have said he has been fully engaged in talks lasting
several hours at a time.
REFORM LEGACY
Many Saudis in a country with a young population will be unable to
recall a time before King Abdullah's rule, both as monarch from 2005
and as de facto regent for a decade before that.
His legacy was an effort to overhaul the kingdom's economic and
social systems to address a looming demographic crisis by creating
private sector jobs and making young Saudis better prepared to take
them.
"I think (Salman) will continue with Abdullah's reforms. He realizes
the importance of this. He's not conservative in person, but he
values the opinion of the conservative constituency of the country,"
said Jamal Khashoggi, head of a news channel owned by a Saudi
prince.
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However, Abdullah's reforms did not stretch to politics, and after
the Arab Spring his security forces clamped down on all forms of
dissent, imprisoning outspoken critics of the ruling family
alongside women drivers and Islamist militants.
As the Saudi population grows and oil prices fall globally, the Al
Saud will increasingly struggle to maintain its generous spending on
social benefits for ordinary people, potentially undermining its
future legitimacy in a country where there are no elections,
analysts say.
King Salman has previously spoken against the idea of introducing
democracy in Saudi Arabia in comments to American diplomats recorded
in embassy cables later released by WikiLeaks.
UNMARKED GRAVE
In keeping with Muslim traditions, Abdullah's body, clothed in white
and shrouded in a simple cloth, will be carried on an ambulance
stretcher by relatives to rest in the mosque before being borne to
the cemetery and buried in an unmarked grave on Friday.
Prayers in the mosque will be led by King Salman and attended by
Muslim heads of state and other senior figures.
Non-Muslim dignitaries will visit to pay respects to the new monarch
and crown prince, and other members of the Al Saud dynasty, in the
coming days.
Later, following the evening prayer an hour after sunset, King
Salman and Crown Prince Muqrin will receive pledges of allegiance
from other ruling family members, Wahhabi clerics, tribal chiefs,
leading businessmen and other Saudi subjects.
In the kingdom's strict Wahhabi sect of Sunni Islam, ostentatious
displays of grief are frowned upon: after previous deaths of Saudi
monarchs and other top royals, there was no official period of
mourning and flags were at full mast.
Despite a surge of sorrowful messages from Saudis on social media,
that religious constraint on public commemorations meant there were
no signs in Riyadh's streets early on Friday that the country's
long-time ruler had died.
(Additional reporting by Rania El Gamal and Sami Aboudi in Dubai;
writing by William Mclean; editing by Philippa Fletcher)
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