Iran Press/Middle East: A video released late on Thursday by state media showed the king walking steadily out of King Faisal hospital in the capital, Riyadh, followed by several aides and his son, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), wearing a face mask.
King Salman was admitted to hospital on July 20 suffering from inflammation of the gall bladder, according to state media.
The king “underwent laparoscopic surgery to remove the gall bladder today... at King Faisal specialist hospital in Riyadh,” the Saudi royal court said in a statement.
It is rare for Saudi Arabia to report on the health of the aging monarch, who has ruled the top oil exporter and the Arab world’s biggest economy since 2015.
His health is closely watched by observers because of the absolute powers he holds presiding over one of the world’s top producers of oil and one of its biggest economies.
There has been much speculation about the health of King Salman, who in 2017, ceded most of his power to Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), who is next in line to the throne.
He has come under intense international criticism over the 2018 murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the kingdom's Istanbul consulate, which the CIA has reportedly said took place on the Prince Mohammed's orders.
The 84-year-old king is the second reigning monarch in the Persian Gulf to be hospitalized recently, after Kuwait’s Sheikh Sabah, amid the twin regional crises of the coronavirus pandemic and a plunge in crude prices.
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