Hours after undergoing medical testing, the state news agency in Saudi Arabia announced on Sunday that King Salman of Saudi Arabia will receive treatment for a lung inflammation at Al Salam Palace in Jeddah.
The state news agency reported that the 88-year-old monarch would receive antibiotic treatment until the inflammation went down, citing the royal court.
Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi announced that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto leader of Saudi Arabia, had postponed a visit to Japan that was supposed to start on Monday due to King Salman's health issue.
At a press conference in Tokyo, Hayashi stated, "Saudi Arabia informed the Japanese government that Crown Prince Mohammed's visit to Japan, which had been scheduled to begin on the 20th, had to be postponed due to the health condition of King Salman of Saudi Arabia."
Due to "high temperature and joint pain," King Salman underwent medical testing at the royal clinics at Al Salam Palace earlier on Sunday, according to the Saudi state news agency.
According to state TV at the time, the king was last admitted to the hospital in April for a standard examination.
The guardian of the holiest places in Islam, King Salman took over as head of the world's largest oil exporter in 2015, having served for more than two and a half years as the crown prince and deputy premier.
His illness coincided with the crown prince's meeting in the kingdom with U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan to discuss a strategic accord between Washington and Riyadh.
A request for comment regarding the crown prince's postponed trip was not immediately answered by Saudi Arabia's embassy in Japan. During the May 20–23 trip, he was supposed to meet with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Japanese Emperor Naruhito.
