Less than four months into his reign, Saudi Arabia’s King Salman is consolidating power around the next generation of leaders as the world’s top oil exporter plays a more prominent role in the region’s power struggles.

The monarch elevated Muhammad Bin Nayef to crown prince after Prince Muqrin, the king’s brother, asked to step down, the royal court said on Wednesday. Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, Salman’s son and current defense minister, was named as deputy crown prince and therefore second in line to the throne.

“The new king has proved consistent in his determination to elevate members of his close family to key positions,” said Crispin Hawes, managing director of research firm Teneo Intelligence in London. “The elevation of the king’s own son reinforces his rapid rise to become one of the two or three most powerful men in the kingdom.”

… Al-Jubeir’s appointment “implicitly suggests a desire to have a key voice in Washington,” said James Dorsey, a senior fellow in international studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. Al-Jubeir has “an understanding of how Washington works that few in the kingdom can match,” he said.