Mohammed bin Salman has been promoted to crown prince and heir to the throne of Saudi Arabia in a shock move by King Salman.
It comes after a suspected power struggle between 31-year-old Salman, who was previously deputy crown prince and defence minister, and his cousin Mohammed bin Nayef, who he is replacing.
Salman, nicknamed ‘Mr Everything’, is the son of King Salman bin Abdulaziz and is seen as symbolising the hopes of the youth of the country’s population, more than half of which is under 25.
Madawi al-Rasheed, a visiting professor at the Middle East Institute at the National University of Singapore, said there are rumours that Salman and Nayef have been battling behind the scenes for some time – and there remains a possibility it could continue.
She wrote in Middle East Eye: ‘With the advent of social media, Saudis will either applaud if Mohammed bin Salman ousts his senior cousin while his father is still alive or simply remain oblivious spectators to the royal drama.
‘With so many powers now in the hands of Mohammed bin Salman, including the soft power of the Saudi media and the global outreach of the public relations companies he employs, it is difficult to forecast any real challenges to his inauguration as the future king.’
But she also warned: ‘Should a power struggle erupt after King Salman dies, it is certain that it will represent a serious blow to dynastic rule in the kingdom and the future of the house of Saud.’
Today’s news was announced by Saudi state agency SPA, which said Nayef has been relieved of his post and replaced by Salman, who becomes deputy prime minister and retains his defence and other portfolios, a royal decree issued by the Saudi state agency said SPA.
Nayef, for years the kingdom’s counter-terrorism chief who put down an al Qaeda campaign of bombings in 2003-06, is relieved of all positions, the decree said.
Even as deputy crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman has been responsible for running Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen, dictating an energy policy with global implications and spearheading plans for the kingdom to build an economic future after oil.
Al Arabiya television reported that the promotion of the prince was approved by the kingdom’s Allegiance Council, and that the king had called for a public pledging of loyalty to Mohammed bin Salman in Mecca.
That the royal succession in the world’s top oil exporter is closely scrutinised only makes the rapidity of Mohammed bin Salman’s rise to power, and the speed with which his better known cousins were brushed aside, more astonishing.
The surprise announcement follows 2-1/2 years of already major changes in Saudi Arabia, which stunned allies in 2015 by launching an air war in Yemen, cutting back on lavish subsidies and proposing in 2016 the partial privatisation of state oil company Aramco.
‘He’s clearly very bright, very intelligent, very on top of all his briefs’ and has significant influence on the 81-year-old monarch, one Western diplomat said.
Among his most prominent positions is chairman of the Council of Economic and Development Affairs, which coordinates economic policy. Mohammed also chairs a body overseeing state oil giant Saudi Aramco.
It is said the prince works 16-hour days and draws inspiration from the writings of wartime British prime minister Winston Churchill and Sun Tzu’s ‘The Art of War’.
The prince has given many interviews where he has spoken at length about his economic plans – including ending the country’s ‘addition’ to oil – while other officials are traditionally tight-lipped.
In a rare press briefing in April last year, he seemed relaxed as he took questions from the domestic and international press for about 50 minutes.
A law graduate from Riyadh’s King Saud University, the dark-bearded prince with a receding hairline is the father of two boys and two girls and – unlike other members of the royal family – has married only once.
He said that although Islam allows for multiple marriages, modern life does not leave the time.
Salman spent years working for his father when he was governor of Riyadh and when he was crown prince from 2013 to 2015.
‘He has a reputation for being aggressive and ambitious,’ Bruce Riedel, a former Central Intelligence Agency officer who directs the Brookings Intelligence Project in Washington, has said.
Salman chairs the supreme board of Aramco, making him the first member of the ruling family to directly oversee the state oil company, long regarded as the preserve of commoner technocrats.
But perhaps most importantly, he also holds the critical position of gatekeeper to his father, King Salman, who in Saudi Arabia’s absolute monarchy retains the final say in any major decision of state.
Outside Saudi Arabia, that rapid advance and the sudden changes to longstanding policies on regional affairs, energy and its economy have prompted unease, adding an unpredictable edge to a kingdom that allies long regarded as a known quantity.
Inside, they have prompted admiration among many younger Saudis who regard his ascent as evidence that their generation is taking a central place in running a country whose patriarchal traditions have for decades made power the province of the old.
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