Riyadh: When Saudi Arabia’s king Abdullah died a year ago on Saturday, people expected their country to keep a steady course under new King Salman.
They were in for a royal shock.
Within hours of acceding to the throne, Salman, then 79, named his son Mohammad Bin Salman, who was not yet 30, as defence minister, setting in motion a year of change while sticking firmly to the country’s conservative foundations.
It was Mohammad, as much as Salman himself, who became the face of the monarchy presiding over one surprise after another during a tumultuous 12 months.
Riyadh adopted a more assertive foreign policy, began austerity measures to address a record budget deficit and confronted increasing violence from terrorists.
“The key shift, I’d say, is the more assertive foreign policy,” said Adam Baron, a visiting fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations.
“We’ve seen the Saudis take a much stronger leadership role in the region.”
Three months after taking office from the cautious reformer Abdullah, Salman ruptured with the past and ensured a shift to a younger generation of rulers.
He named a new heir in Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Nayef, 56, while Mohammad Bin Salman became Deputy Crown Prince and second in line to the throne.
The kingdom also got a more youthful foreign minister with Adel Al Jubeir, 53.
This generational shift was positive, said Iman Fallata, 46, a founder of the Baladi Initiative, which helped prepare women to participate for the first time in municipal elections last December.
“The mentality of the people who govern changed a lot,” she said, with younger leaders now in “front position”.
Such an endorsement reflects an administration “very in tune with what the Saudi population want,” a Western diplomat said.
“And they care about that more than what the West wants or what the liberal elite wants.”
Yet, despite the generational shift, “they’re not trying to push social change in the way that king Abdullah was,” said the diplomat.
The dark-bearded Mohammad Bin Salman, now 30, holds extraordinary power with multiple portfolios, including as head of a new body overseeing Saudi Aramco, the state oil giant that could be partly sold off in a share offer under reforms forced by the collapse in global crude prices.
Saudi Arabia also formed an Arab coalition which in March began air strikes against Iran-backed Al Houthi militants who overthrow the legitimate government of Yemen.
“The effects of the ongoing military intervention in the kingdom’s southern neighbour will continue to shape the Arabian Peninsula for years if not decades,” Baron said.
Yemen is one of many Middle East countries where Saudi Arabia sees Iranian interference, which it decided to confront while it perceives a lack of engagement from its traditional ally Washington.
“The United States must realise that they are the number one in the world and they have to act like it,” Mohammad Bin Salman said in a January 7 interview with The Economist.
According to a foreign diplomat, the Saudis “feel isolated and abandoned by a longtime friend”.
Those feelings crystallised with Washington’s support for a historic agreement that took effect last week between Tehran and major world powers. In return for restrictions on its nuclear capabilities the deal lifts crippling sanctions on Tehran.
Seeing an emboldened Iran, the Saudis acted.
Months of effort led to an unprecedented December meeting by Syrian political and armed opposition factions in Riyadh, a bid for unity before peace negotiations sought with President Bashar Al Assad’s Iran-supported regime.
Five days after those Syrian talks, Mohammad Bin Salman made the surprising announcement of a 34-member coalition to fight “terrorism” in the Islamic world.
“You can see how we became very strong,” Fallata said, following Riyadh’s severing this month of diplomatic ties with Tehran after protesters burned its diplomatic missions there.
“Now we are leading the action.”
Here are key dates for the year since King Salman took the throne in Saudi Arabia.
- January 23, 2015: Salman accedes to the throne following the death of his half-brother King Abdullah. He chooses his nephew Mohammad Bin Nayef as deputy crown prince, and promotes his son Prince Mohammad Bin Salman to defence minister.
- March 26: Saudi Arabia leads a military coalition in an air campaign against Al Houthi militants and their allies in Yemen in support of President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi. Coalition members later deploy troops in Yemen.
- April 29: King Salman promotes Mohammad Bin Nayef to crown prince after removing his half-brother Moqrin. He appoints his son Mohammad Bin Salman as deputy crown prince, putting him second in line to the throne.
- May 13: King Salman snubs an extraordinary meeting between US President Barack Obama and Gulf leaders in response to a rapprochement between Washington and Tehran.
- July 18: Saudi authorities announce the dismantling of an organisation linked to Daesh, arresting 431 suspected members and foiling attempts to attack mosques and a diplomatic mission.
- December 12: Saudi women are allowed to vote for the first time ever in municipal elections in which they also participate as candidates for the first time. Twenty women are voted in.
- December 15: Saudi Arabia announces the launch of an anti-terrorism coalition of 34 Muslim countries. Five days earlier, Riyadh hosted a meeting of Syria’s main opposition factions, whose representatives agreed to hold talks with President Bashar Al Assad’s regime.
- December 28: Saudi Arabia announces a budget deficit of $98 billion in 2015 due to a sharp drop in oil prices.
- January 2: Saudi Arabia executes 47 people convicted of terrorism, mostly Sunnis linked to Al Qaida, but also including prominent Shiite cleric Nimr Al Nimr. Angry mobs ransack Saudi missions in Iran after what Riyadh says were “inciting” remarks by Iranian leaders. The attacks triggered a massive diplomatic crisis between Iran and Saudi Arabia.