Ever since King Salman Bin Abdul Aziz ascended to the throne of Saudi Arabia almost three years ago, and elevated his favourite son Prince Mohammad Bin Salman to the position of Deputy Crown Prince and later, to the post of Crown Prince and second in line, a new chapter has begun in the kingdom. It seems that the Saudi Crown Prince is on a mission to take a major leadership role in shaping the future of Saudi Arabia and the region as a whole.
Saudi Arabia seems to be engaged in multi-front wars: Domestically, a war to revert Saudi Arabia to moderate, tolerant Islam. An economic reform to lessen Saudi Arabia’s dependence on oil revenue and diversify its income. An aggressive campaign to root out corruption to recover more than $100 billion (Dh367.8 billion) of siphoned money over the decades. This time, the anti-corruption campaign, as Prince Mohammad Bin Salman states, unlike the failed previous ones, is from the top-down. And finally, there is the social overhauling of the conservative society by toning down the powerful religious establishment, and breaking old entrenched customs, empowering women, allowing them to drive and go to concerts for women, and attend football games and other public sports events. In addition to establishing General Authority for entertainment to hold festivities and concerts, to boost participation and opportunity for the youth. Including opening three Six Flags theme parks. These were unthinkable even few months ago.
The speed with which Mohammad Bin Salman has been forging a high-profile drive to institute reforms and changes domestically and regionally has been dizzying. By fighting corruption through leading the unprecedented High Anti-corruption Commission last month, which snapped high-profile princes, including the richest man in Saudi Arabia and the Arab world, Prince Al Waleed Bin Talal — who owns the Kingdom Holding and holds stakes in global companies such as Citigroup, Twitter, Apple and News Corp. According to some accounts at least 38 former and current ministers and deputy ministers have been arrested on charges of corruption. Other high-profile princes were also arrested on charges of corruption, money laundering and bribery — including the powerful elder son of late King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz, Prince Miteb Bin Abdullah, the Head of the Powerful National Guard and other princes (since released, as per media reports). Along with current and former ministers, the list of those arrested also includes media moguls such as Al Waleed Al Ebrahim, the founder of the MBC-Group — the first pan-Arab Satellite network.
Prince Mohammad Bin Salman’s aim, according to a recent New York Times interview titled ‘Saudi Arabia’s Arab Spring at last’, is to recover more than $100 billion from about 200 of those arrested. Around 95 per cent have agreed to a settlement, which means signing over cash or shares of their businesses to the Saudi Treasury.
There is a lot at stake in the ambitious plans of Mohammad Bin Salman’s project — Vision 2030 that aims to reduce Saudi Arabia’s dependence on oil income, create non-oil jobs and boost economic growth, including selling off 5 per cent of Aramco, the world’s largest oil company, and build mega cities like the recently-announced $500 billion “NEOM” cities resort on the Red Sea — spanning three countries: Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan.
On the foreign front, Saudi Arabia is as much bold and forthcoming as it is on the domestic front. It seems the ascendance of Donald Trump as the President of the United States has given the Saudis more confidence to pursue their ambitious plans domestically and regionally.
Trump is supportive of the anti-corruption campaign and Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030. Prince Mohammad has praised “President Trump as the right person at the right time”. From launching a daring major military operation to face Iran and its proxies head-on in Yemen, by leading a military operation (Decisive Storm) that comprises an Arab coalition of ten countries to restore the legitimate Hadi government in Yemen (who was toppled in a coup by Iran-backed Al Houthi militias), to forming an Islamic Nato alliance of 41 Islamic states in 2016, and running “Northern Thunder”, the largest Arab and Islamic military manoeuvres in northeastern Saudi Arabia.
It does not seem that the demanding tasks and the ambitious domestic plans of Prince Mohammad have kept him from taking major initiatives. From hosting the inaugural meeting of 41 Ministers of Defence of the “Islamic Military Counter Terrorism Coalition” to coordinating their efforts to defeat terrorism and prevent it from tarnishing our beautiful religion, Saudi Arabia has effectively led from the front. These are besides leading an anti-terror quartet including UAE, Bahrain and Egypt, in a boycott of Qatar over its support for terrorism, interference in the other countries’ internal affairs, and for cosying up to Iran.
The Saudis seem to have taken the fight to Iran after the resignation of Lebanese Prime Minister Sa’ad Hariri from Riyadh to force Hezbollah to stop meddling in the affairs of the region, especially after Al Houthis launched an Iranian-made ballistic missile from Yemen, on November 4, targeting King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh.
In an unprecedented reaction, Prince Mohammad said: Iran’s “Supreme leader is the new Hitler of the Middle East. We learnt from Europe that appeasement doesn’t work. We don’t want the new Hitler in Iran to repeat what happened in Europe.”
Clearly, we are witnessing a new, bolder, more assertive and confident Saudi Arabia. No more appeasement. The robust, muscular and assertive Saudi policy will take the rivals, mainly Iran head on. This could establish a balance of power in the region, provided it is a collective effort by all the Gulf Cooperation Council states and other regional Arab powers to counter Iran and its proxies. This will stabilise the Gulf region and enhance its security and stability and lessen the need to outsource our security.
Professor Abdullah Al Shayji is a professor of Political Science and the former chairman of the Political Science Department, Kuwait University. Twitter: @docshayji.
