The Explainer: Who is Mohammad bin Salman?

Muhammad bin Salman, the Crown Prince of Saudi
Arabia, has come to dominate the politics of his country and the region. His policies
and action (both domestic and foreign) are changing the political landscape in
West Asia.

Who is Mohammad bin Salman?

Mohammad bin Salman is the Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. As
the Crown Prince, he is next in line to succeed his father and King, Salman bin
Abdulaziz Al Saud (who is also the Prime Minister of the kingdom). 

Virtually unknown in the corridors of power before
his meteoric rise, MbS, as he is popularly called, was appointed the Crown
Prince in June 2017. Today, he is also the kingdom’s Deputy Prime Minister, Minister
of Defence, Chairman of the Council for Economic and Development Affairs, and Chairman
of the Council of Political and Security Affairs.

MbS is the most powerful person in today’s Saudi
Arabia. The King, his father, trusts him blindly and has stood by him even as
the calls for the Crown Prince’s removal for his involvement in the botched
Yemen War and the Jamal Khashoggi murder saga grow louder.

Reformer.
MbS is seen as an ardent reformer by his supporters. They point to the several
reforms he has ushered in the deeply conservative country: lifting the ban on
women drivers, allowing cinemas and music concerts, and introducing a spate of
economic reforms. The once all-powerful religious police have now been restricted
to the barracks.   

Megalomaniac.
MbS’ detractors, and there are many, describe him as megalomaniacal and
impetuous. They cite his catastrophic war campaign in Yemen and the ill-planned
embargo against Qatar as examples of his whimsical behaviour.

They also describe him as power-hungry, someone who
cannot tolerate dissent; the jailing of hundreds of political dissidents,
including women activists, is a case in point.

Saad Hariri

The Saad Hariri Incident. Another example is his treatment of the Prime
Minister of Lebanon, Saad Hariri. When Hariri arrived in the Kingdom to meet
King Salman, he was bundled to an unknown location; there was a complete blackout
of the news concerning Hariri, a leader of a sovereign nation. One week later,
Hariri was forced to tender his resignation from the prime minister’s post of
his country from the soil of a foreign nation. His freedom from the clutches of
the Saudi Arabian government came only after the French President Emmanuel Macron
went to Riyadh to negotiate his release. Once back home, Hariri withdrew his
resignation. Analysts believe that he paid the price due to his inability
to stem the growing influence of Iran and its Lebanese proxy, Hezbollah, a Shia
militant group.

Bakr bin Laden

Whipping the Cream of the Saudi Society. The
incident that jolted the elite Saudis most took place in November 2017. Around
200 prominent Saudis, including the former Crown Prince Muhammad bin Nayef and
Bakr bin Laden, the head of Saudi Binladin Group (a construction giant), were
rounded up and detained for several months on the orders of MbS. The entire
operation was described as a campaign against corruption and embezzlement; the
detained were accused of enriching themselves at the cost of the Saudi State.
It is believed that a few of those detained were tortured and forced into
giving up their wealth. Bakr bin Laden and his two brothers were forced
to transfer their 36 per cent shareholding in Saudi Binladin Group to a
state-controlled company, overseen by MbS.

The second part of this article will appear tomorrow.