Fri 12 March 2021:
Saudi Arabia’s minister of Hajj and Umrah has been removed from the post, the country’s state news agency reported today.
“Mohammed Saleh ben Taher Benten, Minister of Haj and Umrah shall be relieved form his position,” SPA said in a tweet, without giving reasons behind the decision. Benten was appointed minister in 2016.
According to orders issued by the Saudi king, Muhammad Saleh Bin Taher Benten will be replaced by Essam Bin Saad Bin Saeed, the Saudi Press Agency reported.
The latter will also continue working as a minister of state and member of the Council of Ministers, the agency said.
King Salman Bin Abdulaziz has also appointed Sheikh Ali Al-Saawi as president of the Supreme Administrative Court at the rank of a minister.
Another change was made in the Civil Aviation Authority, where Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Duaij will succeed Sheikh Abdul Hadi Al-Mansouri as president, the report added.
Haj and Umrah, which generated billions of dollars each year before the pandemic, is a major source of income for the Saudi government.
Companies operating in the Haj and Umrah sector, have been hit hard by the government’s preventive measures. Before the pandemic, more than 1,300 hotels and hundreds of stores buzzed around the clock to cater to pilgrims visiting the holy cities of Mecca and Medina.
Earlier this week, Jabal Omar Development Company, one of Saudi Arabia’s largest listed property developers, secured 1.6 billion riyals ($427 million) in loans from Banque Saudi Fransi backed by a Finance Ministry guarantee, after being hit hard by the Mecca lockdown.
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