Reform and royal rivalry: Milestones in Prince’s ascent
RIYADH: A crackdown on corruption ordered by Saudi Arabia’s crown prince caps a frenetic 2-1/2 years in which he has tried to remodel a conservative kingdom ruled by cautious elderly men into a modern state no longer dependent on oil. Following are the main challenges Prince Mohammed bin Salman has tackled since his father King Salman Bin Abdulaziz made him defense minister of the world’s largest oil producer in January 2015 and then deputy crown prince the following April.
Royal politics
Prince Mohammed capped his rapid rise to power in June this year by replacing his elder cousin Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, widely known as MbN, as crown prince. A source close to King Salman said MbN’s dismissal was “in the higher interests of the state” because he was incapacitated by morphine and cocaine addiction, a legacy of an assassination attempt that left shrapnel in his body.
Anti-corruption campaign
Prince Mohammed, 32, tightened his grip on power with the start of the anti-corruption campaign at the weekend, purging the kingdom’s political and business elite. Among those arrested were 11 princes. Many Saudis welcomed the moves as an assault on the endemic theft of public funds by the powerful. US President Donald Trump said those arrested had been “‘milking’ their country for years” but some Western officials expressed unease about the possible reaction in Riyadh’s opaque tribal and royal politics.
Yemen
Prince Mohammed launched a military campaign in neighboring Yemen in March 2015. A Saudi-led coalition, acting on an invitation from the internationally-recognized government, has targeted the Iran-aligned Houthi movement in a war which has killed more than 10,000 people. The war is closely identified with the prince in his role as defense minister. His image once adorned war propaganda but is rarely associated with the war now although he has said it must continue-to quash Iranian influence. Even before the conflict, Yemen was the poorest country on the Arabian peninsula and now 7 million people there are facing famine and a cholera epidemic. The coalition denies it blocks commercial shipments of food, medicine and fuel.
Qatar
Prince Mohammed has helped lead a diplomatic campaign to isolate Qatar, saying Riyadh’s erstwhile ally backs terrorism and cosies up to Iran. Qatar rejects the accusations and says it is being punished for straying from its neighbors’ backing for authoritarian rulers. The campaign has driven a deep breach into an alliance of Gulf Arab countries that Washington regards as essential to its influence in the region. Qatar had incensed Riyadh by cheering Arab Spring uprisings against some autocratic Arab rulers.
Confrontation with Iran
Saudi Arabia’s rivalry with Iran, its competitor for influence in the Middle East, has deepened as King Salman and Prince Mohammed worked to build a Sunni coalition against Tehran and its allies in the Arab world. In May, as deputy crown prince, Prince Mohammed used unusually provocative language to rule out dialogue with revolutionary Shiite Muslim theocracy Iran, which he said was trying to interfere in Arab lands and dominate the Muslim world. —Reuters