NAN
Saudi Arabia’s King Salman will resume a domestic tour and make an annual address to the Shura Council next week.
The tour was being undertaken as the country grapples with its worst political crisis in a generation over the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
The king, 82, will meet citizens and launch development projects in northern areas including Waad al-Shamal industrial city, state news agency SPA reported on Tuesday.
His remarks to the Shura Council, a top advisory body to the government, will encompass domestic and foreign policy, SPA said.
The address will be his first public comments since the Khashoggi killing.
The king last week visited Qassim and Hail provinces, north of the capital Riyadh, and was accompanied at times by his favorite son and heir apparent, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
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The tours are the latest public outreach by the king, apparently intended to shore up the power of the crown prince, who has taken over day-to-day rule.
However, international reputation of the prince was battered since Khashoggi was killed inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has said the order to kill Khashoggi came from the highest level of the Saudi government,.
However, Erdogan did not believe King Salman himself was involved.
After initial denials, Saudi officials acknowledged the killing was planned in advance but said Prince Mohammed had no knowledge of the specific operation.
The 33-year-old crown prince is on course to become the first Saudi monarch from a new generation in 65 years.
His rise has undermined the system of rule in place for decades in which successive kings sought family consensus and allocated powerful posts to their brothers and nephews.