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US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met on Tuesday with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh about the alleged disappearance and murder of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi. (October 16)
AP
The Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is seen in this archival photo of March 22, 2018 in Washington.(Photo: AP)
He let the women drive. Saudi moviegoers are once again watching Hollywood blockbusters for the first time in more than three decades. Foreign investment has flocked. In an ultra-conservative country, he pleaded for a return to a more moderate form of Islam.
Yet, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has concerns among leading legislators and experts in the Middle East: he has brutally and mercilessly served ministers, media titans, business leaders, human rights defenders and even members of his royal family. An author of opinion called him the Kim Jong Un from the Persian Gulf for his endorsement of the North Korean leader's authoritative gambling book. Only with money. And no apparent nuclear ambition.
Today, the 33-year-old crown prince, the youngest defense minister in the world and effective leader of one of the last absolute monarchies, is on the cusp of another heroic hug: an ally. trustworthy American who, if the claims of Turkey officials proved the truth, presided over the journalist Jamal Khashoggi died inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on 2 October.
Saudi authorities confirmed on Saturday morning that Khashoggi had died inside the Istanbul consulate following a "fight and a quarrel", a radical departure from the assertions of the regime that the dissident journalist had left the premises of the diplomacy unharmed. The Saudi prosecutor said that 18 Saudi nationals had been arrested in the case. None has been identified.
Some Middle East experts say that Khashoggi's violent death could prove to be the loss of the Crown Prince.
"The Saudi royal family is likely to have a decision to make: to flee or to see Saudi Arabia become a pariah state," said Sigurd Neubauer, a Washington-based Middle East analyst.
His father, the 82-year-old Saudi king Salman bin Abdul Aziz, reportedly tried to reaffirm his power as the kingdom struggled against the global storm of gunfire triggered by Khashoggi's murder, according to Reuters.
More: "Do this outside": new claims about the death of Jamal Khashoggi
All this could mark a despicable turning point for the Crown Prince, known by his initials MBS. He was hailed as a bold young visionary seeking to transform Saudi Arabia and strengthen the power and influence of his country across the Middle East.
A rock star "ruthless"
When he landed in the United States in March, the Crown Prince was greeted by a Washington rock star in Silicon Valley. He met with President Trump and other presidents, as well as leaders, celebrities, and tycoons of Wall Street technology. Among them: the founder and CEO of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, the billionaire owner of the newspaper Washington Post, editor of Khashoggi chronicles criticizing the kingdom.
Salman had shaken many American elites.
"(The Crown Prince) is doing a lot of things that we have been asking Saudi Arabia for a very long time … He has lifted the restrictions on the conduct of women." He really chained the religious police. Religious establishment "They do not export Islamism," said Danielle Pletka, senior vice president of foreign and defense policy at the American Enterprise Institute, a think tank of center-right based in Washington.
"These things are all in the" plus "column, she said." Everyone fell head over heels for this guy. "
More: Why does Wall Street minimize the risks of a break with Saudi Arabia on
More: 5 things to know about Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman
But the reign of MBS has also had a dark side, say the experts and insiders of the royal family.
Since he became the de facto leader and the central political leader of the oil-rich kingdom in 2017, MBS has arrested hundreds of Saudi nationals on the pretext of an alleged crackdown on corruption, including more than 200 alleged opponents who were confined at once to the Ritz. -Carlton in Riyadh last year after being summoned for interrogation. Many, like Prince Turki bin Abdullah, Prince Abdul Aziz bin Fahd, Prince Kahled bin Talal and eminent businessman Mohammed al-Amoudi, are still missing and would be held in secret places without access to their families or legal advice.
"We know it's ruthless," Senator Bob Corker, R-Tenn., Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told CNN, referring to the Ritz-Carlton episode orchestrated by MBS. His opponents are "locked up, believe us tortured", he added.
Muhammad bin Nayef, the country's next king before MBS claimed to have planned his ouster, "was a very effective partner for the United States," said Barbara Slavin, Middle East policy specialist for the group. Council of the Atlantic Council. "This man has been under house arrest for more than a year and was allegedly drugged, and none of his friends were able to contact him, so MBS treats people who are not in the same business. he considers it a threat, "she said.
Neubauer, an analyst for the Middle East, said MBS's rise to power is directly related to the personal relationship he forged with Trump.
"MBS was meant to make Saudi Arabia great again," said Neubauer. "It was a powerful ruler fighting history.It was the belief that he would be the second founder of Saudi Arabia – what it was?" was bigger than history, that he would bend history to his will. "
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and President Donald Trump in Washington on March 14, 2017. (Photo: Mark Wilson / Getty Images)
"He wants to be a disruptive leader"
Trump turned Saudi Arabia into the first foreign country he visited as president and his administration has been slow to criticize Saudi Arabia for Khashoggi's disappearance. Trump denied "covering" the royal family, even though he had insisted on the Crown Prince's promise to buy billions of dollars in American weapons and other property.
MBS is alsoin large part to blame for the horrific humanitarian disaster in Yemen, say foreign affairs experts. He dragged the Saudis into the country's civil war to allow the kingdom to fight by proxy against Iran, its worst enemy in the region. At least 10,000 Yemenis were killed. Millions are on the verge of starvation.
"Many people view the MSB as a potential reformer – it may be true, but it seems clear that it can do what it wants," said Senator Jeanne Shaheen, DN .H., A member of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee.
Shaheen said the Khashoggi massacre helped shed light on MBS's other cold-blooded policies.
"It's not just their actions in Yemen – it's their fight against Qatar – it's an abduction of the Lebanese Prime Minister," she said. "It is about bringing together members of the royal family and other prominent members of Saudi society."
Jon Alterman, director of the Middle East Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said that there was a clear link between MBS's instinct of reform and its ruthlessness.
"His sense of urgency is the connective tissue between these two problems," he said, considered "extremely refreshing" in the kingdom.
"He is frank that he wants to be a disruptive leader," said Alterman, who met MBS during his stay in Washington in March. "He does not want to form a consensus. He wants to take a new direction and this is a radical change from decades of Saudi leadership. "
Khashoggi was an irritant to the Crown Prince, not because he disapproved of the direction taken by MBS in his country, but because of the repressive tactics that he used to get there. Khashoggi argued that change in Saudi Arabia should be accompanied by discussions and debates, said Alterman, while MBS's attitude seemed to think that it would take too much time and give his enemies the chance to fight. The enemy time to undermine his agenda.
More: Who is Jamal Khashoggi? Renowned Saudi journalist dissidently dissident
"The irony in all of this is that Jamal Khashoggi agreed with about 90% of the things the Crown Prince wanted to do in Saudi Arabia, and he approved about 1% of the methods," Alterman said.
Khashoggi may have fallen victim to these methods and the Crown Prince could now be dismissed.
When asked if he thought the Saudi regime was planning to oust the MBS, Alterman said, "I can not imagine anyone thinking about it, and I can not imagine anyone saying it very hard. . "
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