"The issue of Jamal Khashoggi... really saddened us, all of us," Ibrahim Al Assaf said, a day after he was appointed foreign minister.

Saudi Arabia's new foreign minister on Friday denied that the kingdom was in crisis and his predecessor was demoted in the face of international concern over Jamal Khashoggi's death. "The issue of Jamal Khashoggi... really saddened us, all of us," Ibrahim Al Assaf said, a day after he was appointed foreign minister in a government reshuffle.

"But all in all, we are not going through a crisis, we are going through a transformation," he added, referring to social and economic reforms spearheaded by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Assaf, a former finance minister, replaced Adel Al Jubeir as foreign minister in the government shake-up ordered by the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman bin Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia.

"This is far from the truth," Assaf said about Al Jubeir. "Adel represented Saudi Arabia and will continue to represent Saudi Arabia... around the world. We complement each other."