Saudi shakes up succession
King skips a generation, makes 31-year-old son heir apparent.
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Saudi Arabia’s King Salman appointed his 31-year-old son Mohammed bin Salman as crown prince Wednesday, placing him first in line to the throne and laying the groundwork for a new generation of royals to take the reins.
Saudi Arabia’s once powerful counterterrorism chief, Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, was removed from the line of succession — giving the younger prince a firmer hold on the kingdom’s foreign policies, including its ties with President Donald Trump, its rivalry with Iran, its more than 2-year war in Yemen and its moves to isolate Qatar.
The shuffle stripped Mohammed bin Nayef of his title as crown prince and interior minister overseeing security. The announcements were made in a series of royal decrees carried on the state-run Saudi Press Agency.
The all-but-certain takeover of the throne by Mohammed bin Salman awards vast powers to a young prince who has taken a hard line with Iran and who has led a war in Yemen that has killed thousands of civilians. Iran’s state TV has called the appointment a “soft coup in Saudi Arabia.”
The semiofficial news agency Fars dubbed it a “political earthquake” and wrote that Nayef had been “ousted.” The website of English-language news agency Press TV ran a lengthy article that denounced Mohammed bin Salman’s hand in policy, including the “bloody military campaign” in Yemen and the “extensive and jarring economic shake-up” currently underway in Saudi Arabia.
In Washington, the White House said in a statement that the two leaders expressed their shared commitment to “cutting off all support for terrorists and extremists, as well as how to resolve the ongoing dispute with Qatar.”
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Wednesday that Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain have prepared a list of demands to submit to Qatar to defuse tensions.
“We hope the list of demands will soon be presented to Qatar and will be reasonable and actionable,” Tillerson said in a statement. “We support the Kuwaiti mediation effort and look forward to this matter moving toward a resolution.”
The prince, known as MBS, already oversees a vast portfolio as defense minister. He has also become popular among some of Saudi Arabia’s youth, who make up the bulk of the population, for pursuing changes that have opened the deeply conservative country to entertainment and greater foreign investments as part of an economic overhaul, including plans to list a percentage of the state-run oil giant Saudi Aramco.
The young prince was little known to Saudis before Salman became king in January 2015. He had previously been in charge of his father’s royal court when Salman was the crown prince.
The Saudi monarch quickly named him second in line to the throne two years ago to the surprise of many within the royal family who were older and more experienced.
The prince is now set to become the first Saudi monarch from a generation of royals who represent the grandsons of the country’s founder, King Abdul-Aziz. For decades, the throne has passed from elderly brother to elderly brother — all sons of the late founder.
The recasting of the line of succession marks the first real test of the ruling Al Saud family’s ability to manage the inevitable generational shift from the sons of Saudi Arabia’s founder to his grandsons, said Torbjorn Soltvedt, an analyst at global risk consultancy Verisk Maplecroft.
Another young prince also ascended to power Wednesday. Prince Abdulaziz bin Saud, 33, was named the new interior minister to oversee counterterrorism efforts and domestic security. His father is the governor of Saudi Arabia’s Eastern province, home to much of the country’s oil wealth and most of its minority Shiites. He previously served as an adviser to the interior and defense ministries.
Both young princes hail from the powerful Sudairi branch of the royal family.
Even when there is disagreement, the royal family has long followed a tradition of speaking with one voice, particularly on issues of succession, in order to appear united in front of Saudi Arabia’s many tribes and communities.
After the decrees were announced, Saudi TV aired footage of the new crown prince warmly greeting the man he is replacing, Mohammed bin Nayef. The prince is shown kissing his older cousin’s hand and kneeling before him. The outgoing crown prince is heard telling him: “I will rest now, and God help you.”
Despite his ambitions, Mohammed bin Salman has faced criticism for the Saudi-led war in Yemen, which has failed to dislodge Iranian-allied rebels known as Houthis from the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, and has had devastating effects on the impoverished country.
The new crown prince also has used fighting words to describe Iran.
In an interview last month, the Saudi prince suggested that Iran wanted to wrest control of Islam’s holiest sites away from Riyadh and that there could be no dialogue with the regional Shiite power.
“Instead we will work so that the battle is for them in Iran, not in Saudi Arabia,” Mohammed bin Salman told a reporter from the Saudi network MBC. The comments sparked an apparent response from Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who dubbed the Saudi leadership “idiots” whose policies would lead to “certain downfall.”