New Saudi crown prince

Interior Minister Mohammed bin Nayef is next in line

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s interior minister, Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, a close friend of the US and a scourge of Islamist militants, could be the country’s first king from the third generation of its ruling dynasty.

King Salman moved swiftly to appoint Mohammed deputy crown prince yesterday, hours after he took the throne following the death of King Abdullah. The decision appeared to settle for many years to come tough decisions over the kingdom’s future succession.

By sending an assassin to try to kill Prince Mohammed when he was Saudi security chief in 2009, al-Qaeda paid him the compliment of treating him as one of its most dangerous enemies.

The prince narrowly sur- vived that attack, in which a militant approached him claiming he wanted to defect before detonating a bomb concealed under his clothes, and was named interior minister in November 2012.

The 55- year- old is now firmly established as the most powerful member of his generation in the ruling al-Saud family, and even before he becomes king will be one of the most important figures in the world’s top oil exporter.

He is the first grandson of Saudi Arabia’s first monarch, King Abdulaziz, or Ibn Saud, to join the line of succession. Abdulaziz established the kingdom in 1932 and ruled until his death in 1953, a period in which Saudi Arabia assumed growing geo- political importance because of its huge oil resources, developed with US partners.

Mohammed remains in his position as interior minister, yesterday’s decree said.

A March 2009 US embassy cable released by WikiLeaks described Mohammed as already being the de facto interior minister and said he was “held in high regard by Saudi King Abdullah... and well respected by the Saudi populace”.

Yet despite his constant contacts with Western – particularly American – officials and a prominent media presence through his security role, Mohammed remains something of an unknown quantity.

Diplomats and Saudi analysts and academics are uncertain what positions he holds on the big long- term issue facing the kingdom: reconciling social change and a young population with conservative traditions and an oil-dependent economy.

“I would assume he’s from the second generation of princes who are more receptive to ideas of reform.

“But he is good at making everybody think he is in their camp.

“That’s what makes a successful politician,” said Jamal Khashoggi, general manager of al- Arab News, when Mohammed was appointed in 2012.

Mohammed is now the youngest member of the select group of princes at the top of the government who control the important portfolios of foreign affairs, intelligence and defence.

But while his promotion to minister pleased some allies, such as the US with whose security forces he worked closely, it also worried some Saudis who fear his securityconscious approach will impinge on civil liberties.

The prince, a son of the late Crown Prince Nayef who had served as interior minister since 1975 until his sudden death from a heart attack in 2012, has come to be closely identified with the formidable structure his father created.

During his two years in charge of the ministry, the gov- ernment’s tolerance for dissent has shown no sign of loosening as a steady stream of activists have been detained and imprisoned on charges that include talking to foreign media.

Mohammed was educated in the US, receiving a degree in political science in 1981. – Reuters