Dubai: Saudi Arabia’s Deputy Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman was elevated to Crown Prince yesterday, replacing his cousin in a sudden announcement that confirms King Salman’s 31-year-old son as next ruler of the world’s leading oil exporter.
A royal decree said Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Nayef, a counter-terrorism chief admired in Washington for putting down an Al Qaida campaign of bombings in 2003-’06, was relieved of all positions and replaced by Mohammad Bin Salman who becomes deputy prime minister and retains defence, oil and other portfolios.
The decision by King Salman to promote his son and consolidate his power was endorsed by 31 out of 34 members of the Allegiance Council, made up of senior members of the ruling Al Saud family, the royal decree said. Analysts said the change empowers Prince Mohammad Bin Salman to move faster with his plan to reduce the kingdom’s reliance on oil, which includes the partial privatisation of state oil company Aramco.
What new Crown Prince means for Saudi Arabia
“The change is a huge boost to the economic reform programme, Vision 2030 and the whole paradigm shift that Saudi Arabia is traversing and Prince Mohammad Bin Salman (MbS) is its architect,” said John Sfakianakis, director of the Riyadh-based Gulf Research Centre. “It’s important that MbS see through his vision and strategy being implemented and sustained,” he said.
Bernard Haykel, Professor of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton, said the king’s decision was aimed at setting the line of succession clearly to avoid a power struggle between his son and Mohammad Bin Nayef.
There is clarity
“It’s clearly a transition that has happened smoothly and bloodlessly … There’s going to be much more clarity on the issue of succession now. There was a bit of messiness before with everyone guessing what was going to happen. Now it’s clear, it’s straightforward. That kind of clarity lowers the risk, there’s no question as to who’s going to be in charge…”
A senior Saudi official said the decision was taken due to what he called special circumstances presented to the members of the Allegiance Council.
He added that Mohammad Bin Nayef supported the decision in a letter sent to the king.
Although Mohammad Bin Salman’s promotion was expected among close circles it came as a surprise at a time the kingdom is facing escalating tensions with Qatar and Iran and is locked in an air war in Yemen.
The decree said Prince Mohammad Bin Nayef, long a favourite of Washington’s for his tough stance against Islamist militancy, is relieved of all positions. Even as deputy crown prince, Mohammad Bin Salman has been responsible for running Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen, dictating an energy policy with global implications and spearheading plans for the kingdom to build an economic future after oil.
The announcement follows 2-1/2 years of already major changes in Saudi Arabia, which stunned allies in 2015 by launching an air war in Yemen, cutting back on lavish subsidies and proposing in 2016 the partial privatisation of state oil company Aramco. Financial analysts said Prince Mohammad’s promotion gave further assurance that key parts of radical reforms to diversify the Saudi economy beyond oil would continue.
“We do not expect to see any major changes to key areas of policy, including economic – Prince Mohammad Bin Salman has already been driving the economic agenda and the push to transform and liberalise the economy,” said Monica Malek, chief economist at Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank.
Last year Mohammad Bin Salman announced sweeping changes aimed at ending the kingdom’s reliance to oil, part of his campaign to tackle systemic challenges that the kingdom has previously failed to address.
Mohammad Bin Salman also retains his post as defence minister, a role that in Saudi Arabia gives its incumbent command of one of the world’s biggest arms budgets and makes him ultimately responsible for Saudi Arabia’s unprecedented military intervention in Yemen.
He also heads the Council for Economic and Development Affairs (CEDA), a group of cabinet ministers who meet weekly and which oversees all elements of policy that touch on the economy or social issues like education, health and housing.
Prince Mohammad chairs the supreme board of Aramco, making him the first member of the ruling family to directly oversee the state oil company, long regarded as the preserve of commoner technocrats.
But perhaps most importantly, he also holds the critical position of gatekeeper to his father, King Salman, who in Saudi Arabia’s absolute monarchy retains the final say in any major decision of state.
Inside Saudi Arabia, Mohammad Bin Salman’s success has prompted admiration among many younger Saudis who regard his ascent as evidence that their generation is taking a central place in running the country.
- Reuters
UAE leaders laud decision
President His Highness Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan sent a congratulatory cable to Saudi Arabia’s King Salman Bin Abdul Aziz on the occasion of appointing Prince Mohammad Bin Salman as the Kingdom’s Crown Prince.
Shaikh Khalifa wished Prince Mohammad Bin Salman success in performing his duties, supporting the Saudi King, and continuing the process of development in Saudi Arabia.
His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, and His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Abu Dhabi Crown Prince and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, also sent similar cables to both King Salman and Prince Mohammad.
— WAM
Another young face
Saudi Arabia’s new interior minister Prince Abdul Aziz Bin Saud Bin Nayef was born on November 4, 1983. He graduated from Dhahran Ahliya School and studied law at King Saud University before working in the private sector.
When King Salman became the ruler of the kingdom, he was appointed adviser at the Royal Court in the law department and later in the border department, according to the biography posted by Saudi news site Al Marsad.
He worked for six months in the political division then as adviser at the Office of the Minister of Defence. In May 2016, he was appointed Adviser to the Minister of Interior. On June 21 he was appointed Minister of Interior.
— Habib Toumi, Bureau Chief
Mohammad Bin Salman: A hard worker with a vision for reform
Riyadh: Saudi Arabia’s new Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman holds exceptional power for a man of just 31, so much so that diplomats nickname him “Mr Everything”.
The son of King Salman has risen to become Saudi Arabia’s most influential and prominent figure since being named second-in-line to the throne in early 2015.
He symbolises the hopes of a youthful local population, more than half of which is under 25.
Prince Mohammad is the main proponent of a wide-ranging plan, dubbed Vision 2030, to bring social and economic change to the oil-dependent economy.
He also holds the post of defence minister more than two years into a Saudi-led military intervention in neighbouring Yemen. Born on August 31, 1985, the prince amassed “extraordinary power and influence very quickly” after his father ascended the throne in January 2015, said Frederic Wehrey of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington.
“He’s clearly very bright, very intelligent, very on top of all his briefs” and has significant influence on the 81-year-old monarch, one Western diplomat said.
Among his most prominent positions is chairman of the Council of Economic and Development Affairs, which coordinates economic policy. Mohammad also chairs a body overseeing state oil giant Saudi Aramco.
As defence minister, the prince supervises the Saudi-led coalition’s operations in support of the Yemeni government against Al Houthi rebels who took over the capital Sana’a in a coup in 2014.
In a profile last year, Bloomberg Businessweek said the prince works 16-hour days and draws inspiration from the writings of wartime British prime minister Winston Churchill and Sun Tzu’s The Art of War.
It was one of many interviews in which the prince has spoken at length about his economic plans for the kingdom, where officials are traditionally tight-lipped.
In a rare press briefing in April last year, he seemed relaxed as he took questions from the domestic and international press for about 50 minutes.
Wearing typical Saudi attire he leaned on a white podium and sometimes rubbed his eyes, replying in Arabic to questions posed in English.
A law graduate from Riyadh’s King Saud University, the dark-bearded prince with a receding hairline is the father of two boys and two girls and has married only once.
“He has a reputation for being aggressive and ambitious,” Bruce Riedel, a former Central Intelligence Agency officer who directs the Brookings Intelligence Project in Washington, has said.
— AFP
