Saudi Arabia’s 84-year-old ruler King Salman was admitted to hospital in Riyadh Monday for gall bladder inflammation, the royal court says, prompting the postponement of the Iraqi prime minister’s high-profile visit.
It is rare for Saudi Arabia to report on the health of the ageing monarch, who has ruled the top oil exporter and the Arab world’s biggest economy since 2015.
King Salman is the second reigning monarch in the Gulf to be hospitalized, after Kuwait’s 91-year-old emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad Al-Sabah was admitted to hospital last week, at a time when the region is gripped by the twin crises of the coronavirus pandemic and a plunge in crude prices.
A Saudi royal court statement says King Salman was “admitted today to King Faisal specialist hospital in Riyadh for some medical tests due to cholecystitis,” inflammation of the gall bladder.
The statement released by the official Saudi Press Agency around 4:30 a.m. (0130 GMT) does not disclose any further details.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi’s scheduled visit to Saudi Arabia, which was due to start on Monday, has been postponed after the king’s hospitalization, according to the Saudi foreign minister.
— AFP
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