Mohammed bin Salman: Difference between revisions

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Mohammed bin Salman
Defense Minister of Saudi Arabia
Mohammad bin Salman bin Abdul Aziz Al-Saud
Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia
Reign	21 June 2017 – present
Predecessor	Muhammad bin Nayef
Born	(1985-08-31) 31 August 1985 (age 38)[a] Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Spouse	Sara bint Mashoor bin Abdulaziz Al Saud[1]
Issue	4
Names Mohammad bin Salman bin Abdulaziz bin Abdul Rahman bin Faisal bin Turki bin Abdullah bin Mohammed bin Saud
House	House of Saud
Father	King Salman
Mother	Fahda bint Falah bin Sultan bin Hathleen al-Ajmi
Religion	Sunni Islam

Mohammad bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud (

Despite promised reforms, the arrests and persecutions rate of human rights activists have risen under Mohammad bin Salman. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch continue to criticize the Saudi government for its violations of human rights.^[23][24][25]

Early life and education

Mohammad bin Salman Al Saud was born on 31 August 1985^[a] in Riyadh.^{[26][note 1]} He is the son of King Salman from his third spouse,^[28] Fahda bint Falah bin Sultan bin Hathleen.^[1] She is the granddaughter of Rakan bin Hithalayn, who was the head of the Al Ajman tribe.^[29]

Prince Mohammad bin Salman is the eldest of his full siblings,

After graduating from college, Mohammad bin Salman spent several years in the private sector before becoming personal aide to his father. He worked as a consultant for the Experts Commission, working for the Saudi Cabinet.[32]

On 15 December 2009, at the age of 30, Mohammad bin Salman entered politics as a special advisor to his father when the latter was the governor of Riyadh Province.^[33] At this time, Mohammad bin Salman began to rise from one position to another such as secretary-general of the Riyadh Competitive Council, special advisor to the chairman of the board for the King Abdulaziz Foundation for Research and Archives, and a member of the board of trustees for Albir Society in the Riyadh region.^[34]

In October 2011, Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz died, and the current King Salman began his ascent to power by becoming second deputy prime minister and defense minister in November 2011 and making Mohammad bin Salman his private advisor.^[35]

Chief of the Court

In June 2012, Crown Prince

On 23 January 2015, King Abdullah died, Salman took the throne and Prince Mohammad bin Salman was appointed Minister of Defense.^[39] He was also named as the Secretary General of the Royal Court on the same date.^[40] In addition he retained his post as the Minister of the State.^[41][42]

In Yemen, the

In April 2015, Muhammad bin Nayef and Prince Mohammad bin Salman respectively became Crown Prince and Deputy Crown Prince, under King Salman’s royal decrees.^[48]

Regarding his role in the military intervention, Prince Mohammad bin Salman gave his first on-the-record interview on 4 January 2016 to The Economist, which had called him the architect of the war in Yemen. Denying the title, he explained the mechanism of the decision-making institutions actually holding stakes in the intervention, including the council of security and political affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs from the Saudi side. He added that the Houthis usurped power in the Yemeni capital Sana’a before he served as Minister of Defense.^[49][50][46]

Crown Prince

Mohammad bin Salman was appointed

On the day he became Crown Prince, U.S. President Donald Trump called Mohammad bin Salman to "congratulate him on his recent elevation". Trump and the new crown prince pledged "close cooperation" on security and economic issues, according to the White House, and the two leaders also discussed the need to cut off support for terrorism, the recent diplomatic dispute with Qatar, and the push to secure peace between Israel and the Palestinians.^[56] Mohammad bin Salman told the

Despite promised reforms, the arrests and persecution of activists has risen under Mohammad bin Salman. According to the Gulf Centre for Human Rights: "The human rights situation in Saudi Arabia has markedly deteriorated and there has been a renewed crackdown against human rights defenders, since the accession of Mohammad bin Salman as Crown Prince in June 2017. The environment for human rights defenders has become increasingly dangerous and they face targeting by authorities on a daily basis."^[58]

The recent crackdown on human right activists includes the academic and novelist 

On 10 November 2017, the Specialised Criminal Court (SCC) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia sentenced the Internet activist Naima Al-Matrood^[60] to six years in jail followed by six years of travel ban after her sentence is served.

Amnesty international and Human rights watch continue to criticize the Saudi government for its violations of

Among those executed in 2016 were Ali Sa'eed al-Ribh,[61]^[62] whose trial judgment indicates that he was under 18 at the time of some of the crimes for which he was sentenced to death. As a state party to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Saudi Arabia is legally obliged to ensure that no one under 18 at the time of a crime is sentenced to death or to life in prison without the possibility of release.

Ali al-Nimr,^[63] Abdullah al-Zaher and Dawood al-Marhoon, were arrested individually in 2012 aged 17, 16 and 17 respectively are at risk of being executed at any time. On 10 July, 2017 Abdulkareem al-Hawaj^[64][65] had his death sentence upheld on appeal. He was found guilty of crimes committed when he was 16. The four young men were convicted of security-related offences after taking part in anti-government protests.^[66]

Use of counterterrorism laws to prosecute human rights activists

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Counter Terrorism, Ben Emmerson, criticized Saudi for violating human rights in the name of fighting terrorism during his visit to Saudi Arabia from 30 April to 4 May 2017. In his report,^[67] Saudi uses its terrorism tribunal and counterterrorism law to unjustly prosecute human rights defenders, writers, and peaceful critics.^[68] The report states: "the Special Rapporteur would like to share some observations, concerns and recommendations with regard to the unacceptably broad definition of terrorism, and the use of the 2014 counter-terrorism law and other national security provisions against human rights defenders, writers, bloggers, journalists and other peaceful critics. He would also like to raise the continuing problems relating to the prevention of torture of terrorist suspects during investigation; the reported use of confessions obtained by duress during interrogation, the use of the death penalty following proceedings in which there are reported due process shortcomings".^[69]

Political and economic changes

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On 29 January 2015, Prince Mohammad was named the chair of the newly established Council for Economic and Development Affairs,^[70] replacing the disbanded Supreme Economic Commission.^[70] In April 2015, Prince Mohammad bin Salman was given control over Saudi Aramco by royal decree following his appointment as deputy crown prince.^[71]

Vision 2030

Prince Mohammad bin Salman took the leadership in the restructuring of Saudi Arabia's economy, which he officially announced in April 2016 when he introduced Vision 2030, the country's strategic orientation for the next 15 years. Vision 2030 plans to reform Saudi's economy towards a more diversified and privatized structure. It details goals and measures in various fields, from developing non-oil revenues and privatization of the economy to e-government and sustainable development.^[72]

Prince Mohammad bin Salman's biggest bet was his plan to restore the Saudi kingdom's

Prince bin Salman has successfully lobbied for regulations restricting the powers of the religious police.[45] Prince bin Salman established an entertainment authority that has hosted comedy shows, pro wrestling events, and monster truck rallies.^[45] In an interview with al Arabiya he also shared his idea for "Green cards" for non-Saudi foreigners.^[73]

The first measures undertaken in April 2016 included new taxes and cuts in subsidies, a diversification plan, the creation of a $2 trillion Saudi sovereign wealth fund, and a series of strategic economic reforms called the National Transformation Programme.^[74] Prince bin Salman plans to raise capital for the sovereign wealth fund by selling off shares of Saudi Aramco, the state-owned petroleum and natural gas company,^[71] with the capital to be re-invested in other sectors such as to implement the diversification plans.^[75] However, as of October 2017, the plan for Aramco’s IPO listing has been labeled "a mess" by The Economist.^[76]

Prince Mohammad bin Salman slashed the state budget, freezing government contracts and reducing the pay of civil employees as part of drastic austerity measures. Within hours of doing so, he bought the Serene.^[77][46]

Prince Mohammad is seen as the figure behind the removal of the ban on female drivers in September 2017.^[78] He has also chipped away at Saudi Arabia’s Wali system.^[79]

In October 2017, he said the ultra-conservative Saudi state had been "not normal" for the past 30 years, blaming rigid doctrines that have governed society in a reaction to the Iranian Revolution, which successive leaders "didn’t know how to deal with".^[80] According to him, Saudi Arabia is "returning to what we were before—a country of moderate Islam that is open to all religions and to the world".^[81] In essence, he was telling the country's clerics that the deal the royal family struck with them after the 1979 siege of the Grand Mosque in Mecca is being renegotiated.^[82] Building an industrial culture was not compatible with Wahhabism. The Wahhabis were committed to fixed social and gender relationships. These were consistent with an economy built on oil sales, but industrialization requires a dynamic culture with social relations constantly shifting.^[83]

According to Politico, MbS wants to pre-empt a repetition of the downfall of the earlier Saudi states due to familial infighting, internal malaise, external frailty and failure to modernize. Mindful of this history, instead of waiting for today’s Saudi state to weaken and fall, MBS is trying to save the country before it collapses.^[84]

Ayaan Hirsi Ali claims that "if M.B.S. succeeds in his modernization efforts, Saudis will benefit from new opportunities and freedoms, and the world will benefit from curtailing the Wahhabi radicalization agenda. A decade from now, the kingdom could look more like the United Arab Emirates, its prosperous and relatively forward-looking neighbor."^[85]

2017 purge

In May 2017, Mohammad bin Salman publicly warned "I confirm to you, no one will survive in a corruption case—whoever he is, even if he’s a prince or a minister".^[86] On 4 November 2017, the Saudi press announced the arrest of the Saudi prince and billionaire

Some analysts saw the arrests as part of a power grab on the part of Salman. The New York Times wrote:

The sweeping campaign of arrests appears to be the latest move to consolidate the power of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the favorite son and top adviser of King Salman. The king had decreed the creation of a powerful new anticorruption committee, headed by the crown prince, only hours before the committee ordered the arrests.

Muqtedar Khan, speculated as to whether the removal of Talal, a critic of Donald Trump, amounted to a coup.^[90] BBC correspondent Frank Gardner was quoted as saying that "Prince Mohammed is moving to consolidate his growing power while spearheading a reform programme". Yet "[i]t is not clear what those detained are suspected of."^[91]

Other analysts see the purge as part of a move towards reform. Steven Mufson of the

Washington Post argues that Crown Prince Mohammed “knows that only if he can place the royal family under the law, and not above as it was in the past, can he ask the whole country to change their attitudes relative to taxes [and] subsidies.”^[92] An analysis from the CBC claimed that "the clampdown against corruption resonates with ordinary Saudis who feel that the state has been asking them to accept belt tightening while, at the same time, they see corruption and the power elite accumulating more wealth".^[93] Bin Salman's ambitious reform agenda is widely popular with Saudi Arabia's burgeoning youth population but faces resistance from some of the old guard more comfortable with the kingdom's traditions of incremental change and rule by consensus.^[94] According to a former British ambassador to Riyadh, Bin Salman "is the first prince in modern Saudi history whose constituency has not been within the royal family, it’s outside it. It’s been young Saudis, particularly younger Saudi men in the street".^[95]

Robert Jordan, former US ambassador to Saudi Arabia, said that "Certainly Saudi Arabia has had a corruption problem for many years. I think the population, especially, has been very unhappy with princes coming in and grabbing business deals, with public funds going to flood control projects that never seem to get built... I would also say it's a classical power grab move sometimes to arrest your rivals, your potential rivals under the pretext of corruption".^[96]

A Eurasia Group director states that "Mohammed bin Salman is in effect taking steps to separate the Al Saud family from the state...The process of destroying old elite networks that monopolized access to profitable contracts bodes well for the business environment."^{[86] [unreliable source?]}

US President Trump expressed support for the move, tweeting "I have great confidence in King Salman and the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, they know exactly what they are doing....Some of those they are harshly treating have been “milking” their country for years!"

Macron, who visited Riyadh days after the purge, when asked about the purge "This is not the role of a president, and similarly I would not expect a leader of a foreign country to come and infringe on domestic matters," Macron said.^[99]

Philanthropy

Mohammad bin Salman established himself as the chairman of the Prince Mohammad bin Salman Foundation, otherwise known as

MiSK, which puts in place activities empowering and enabling the younger generation, in line with Vision 2030’s goals of a more developed nation.^[100] The foundation was a partner of the 9th UNESCO Youth Forum for Change in 2015.^[101] In 2017, the with Vision 2030 goals aligned new city, Neom was announced.^[102]

The foundation focuses on the country's youth and provides different means of fostering talent, creative potential, and innovation in a healthy environment that offers opportunities in arts and sciences. The foundation pursues these goals by establishing programs and partnering with local and global organizations. It intends to develop intellectual capability in youth, as well as unlock the potential of all Saudi people.[103] Saudi journalists traveling with Prince Mohammed on foreign delegations have been paid up to $100,000 in cash.^[45]

Controversies

In late 2015, Prince Mohammad attended a meeting between King Salman and U.S. President

U.S. foreign policy.^[45] In addition, when Prince bin Salman announced an anti-terrorist military alliance of Islamic countries in December 2015, some of the countries involved said they had not been consulted.^[45]

On 10 January 2016,

BND, the German intelligence agency, portrayed...Saudi defence minister and Deputy Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman...as a political gambler who is destabilising the Arab world through proxy wars in Yemen and Syria."^{[48][46][50][104]} German officials reacted to the BND’s memo, saying the published statement "is not the position of the federal government".^[55]

During the

Saudi-led intervention in Yemen, thousands of civilians were reportedly killed in a major bombing campaign, prompting accusations of war crimes in the intervention.^{[105][106][107]} So far, the war has already cost the kingdom tens of billions of dollars and destroyed much of Yemen's infrastructure but failed to dislodge the Shiite Houthi rebels and their allies from the Yemeni capital.^[77][48][47]

Mohammad bin Salman has been criticised for his purchase of a French château and luxury yacht, while at the same time "leading a sweeping crackdown on corruption and self-enrichment by the Saudi elite" and demanding fiscal austerity within Saudi Arabia.[108]

Personal life

Mohammad bin Salman has a princely lifestyle. In 2015, he purchased the Italian-built and Bermuda-registered yacht

Versailles in France for $301,000,000 ($304 million as of 2017).^[108][111]

Mohammad has travelled extensively around the world, meeting with politicians, business leaders and celebrities.[110] In June 2016, he travelled to Silicon Valley and met key people in the US high tech industry, including Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.^[112]

Mohammad bin Salman married Princess Sarah bint Mashhoor bin Abdulaziz Al Saud in 2008. They have four children.^[113]

Ancestry

Family of Mohammed bin Salman

[114] 16. Abdul Rahman bin Faisal 17. Sarah bint Mishari bin Abdulrahman bin Hassan Al Saud 4. Ibn Saud 18. Ahmed Al Kabir bin Mohammed bin Turki Al Sudairi 9. Sarah bint Ahmed Al Kabir bin Mohammed Al Sudairi 2. Salman Al Saud 20. Mohammed bin Ahmed Al Kabir Al Sudairi 10. Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Sudairi 5. Hassa bint Ahmed Al Sudairi 22. Ali bin Mohammed Al Suwaidi 11. Sharifa bint Ali bin Mohammed Al Suwaidi 1. Mohammad Al Saud 24. Hathleen al-Ajmi 12. Sultan bin Hathleen al-Ajmi 6. Falah bin Sultan al-Ajmi 3. Fahda bint Falah al-Ajmi

See also

• Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud
• MiSK Foundation
• Vision 2030
• Council of Economic and Development Affairs

Notes and references

Notes

1. ^ No official date of birth is publicly recorded, but a Saudi newspaper article from 2001 reported that he was then in 10th grade.^{[27][contradictory]}

1. ^ ^{a b c} See^{[2][3][4][5][6]}

References

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Further information

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Mohammad bin Salman Al Saud.

• Saudi Deputy Crown Prince: The War Will Be Waged in Iran, Not Saudi Arabia; No to Direct Dialogue with Iran,
  MEMRI TV
  , 2017
• Saudi King’s Son Plotted Effort to Oust His Rival New York Times

Political offices
Preceded by Prince Muhammad bin Nayef	First Deputy Prime Minister 21 June 2017 – present	Succeeded by Incumbent
Preceded by Prince Muhammad bin Nayef	Second Deputy Prime Minister 29 April 2015 – 21 June 2017	Succeeded by Vacant
Preceded by Prince Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud	Minister of Defence 23 January 2015 – present	Succeeded by Incumbent
Preceded by Khaled al-Tuwaijri	Chief of the Royal Court 23 January 2015 – present	Succeeded by Incumbent
Saudi Arabian royalty
Preceded by Prince Muhammad bin Nayef	Deputy Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia 29 April 2015 – 21 June 2017	Succeeded by Vacant
Preceded by Prince Muhammad bin Nayef	Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia 21 June 2017 – present	Succeeded by Incumbent