Saudi appoints first female deputy minister of labour

Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman bin Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia, reshuffled some of the Kingdom's top military officers and several deputy ministers on Monday in a broad shakeup seen as elevating younger officials in key economic and security areas.

Several new deputies in economic and security-related ministries as well as a handful of new city mayors were appointed, including Dr.Tamader bint Youssef Al Rammah as  deputy minister of labour and social development for social development, a rare senior post for a woman in the Kingdom, the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) said in a statement.

The order is to be implemented by the concerned authorities.

Al Rammah, who holds Ph.D in Radiology and Medical Engineering from Manchester University, was Human Rights Commission Representative of Saudi Arabia in 2016 and is an academic who served on the faculty of King Saud University, reports Al Arabiya.

No official reason was given for the sweeping overhaul, but it comes as the Saudi-led Coalition's military intervention in Yemen against Houthi rebels nears the end of its third year.

"A military transformation is under way in Saudi Arabia. The changes come on the heels of the SAMI exhibition, which is a critical part of the Prince Mohammed's reform plan to create an indigenous defence program," Theodore Karasik, a senior advisor at the consultancy Gulf States Analytics, told AFP.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is the country's defence minister and has been consolidating his grip on power in recent months.

Prince Mohammed is the country's defence minister and has been consolidating his grip on power in recent months while pushing major economic and social reforms.

The Prince has pursued an assertive regional policy, including leading a military intervention in neighbouring Yemen since 2015.

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