Missing Journalist Saga Shines Light on Saudi Prince’s Darker Side

Local Editor

In a kingdom once ruled by an ever-aging rotation of elderly monarchs, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman stands out as the youthful face of a youthful nation. But behind the carefully calibrated public-relations campaign pushing images of the smiling prince meeting with the world’s top leaders and business executives lurks a darker side.

Last year, at age 31, Mohammed became the kingdom’s crown prince, next in line to the throne now held by his octogenarian father, King Salman. While pushing for women to drive, he has overseen the arrest of women’s rights activists. While calling for foreign investment, he has imprisoned businessmen, royals and others in a crackdown on corruption that soon resembled a shakedown of the kingdom’s most powerful people.

As Saudi defense minister from the age of 29, he pursued a war in Yemen that began a month after he took the helm and wears on today.

What the crown prince chooses next likely will affect the world’s largest oil producer for decades to come. And as the disappearance and feared death of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul may show, the young prince will brook no dissent in reshaping the kingdom in his image.

“I don’t want to waste my time,” he told Time Magazine in a cover story this year. “I am young.”

Khashoggi, a US resident who wrote several columns for The Washington Post critical of Prince Mohammed, disappeared October 2 on a visit to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Turkish officials have offered no evidence, but say they fear the writer was killed and dismembered by a Saudi team of 15 men — an operation that, if carried out, would have to have been authorized by the top of the Al Saud monarchy. The kingdom describes the allegation as “baseless,” but has provided no proof that Khashoggi ever left the consulate.

For decades in Saudi Arabia, succession passed down among the dozens of sons of the kingdom’s founder, King Abdul-Aziz. And, over time, the sons have grown older and older upon reaching the throne.

When King Salman took power in January of 2015 and quickly appointed Prince Mohammed as defense minister, it took the kingdom by surprise, especially given the importance of the position and the prince’s age.

He was little-known among the many grandchildren of Saudi Arabia’s patriarch, a young man educated only in the kingdom who stuck close to his father, who previously served as the governor of Riyadh, the Saudi capital.

As defense minister, he entered office facing a crisis in Yemen, the Arab world’s poorest country, which lies south of the kingdom.

The United Nations estimates 10,000 people have been martyred in Yemen’s conflict, and activists say that number is likely far higher. It has exacerbated what the UN calls the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, with hunger and cholera stalking civilians, worsened by the kingdom’s blockade of ports.

Meanwhile, the Saudi-led coalition has faced widespread criticism for its airstrikes hitting clinics and marketplaces, which have martyred civilians.

For Prince Mohammed, the conflict remains part of what he sees as an existential struggle between Saudi Arabia and Iran for the future of the Middle East. Asked about Western concerns over civilian casualties, he offers this: “Mistakes happen in all wars.”

The prince also found himself involved in the bizarre resignation-by-television address of Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri, who announced he would step down after a visit to the kingdom in November 2017, fueling suspicion he was coerced into doing so.

MBS’ harsh rhetoric extends to likening Leader of the Islamic Revolution His Eminence Imam Sayyed Ali Khamenei to Nazi Germany’s Adolf Hitler. He’s also hinted Saudi Arabia would be willing to fight Iran in other ways, leading Tehran to link the kingdom to an attack on a military parade in Ahvaz last month that martyred at least 24 people and wounded more than 60. Both Arab separatists and the Wahhabi Daesh [Arabic acronym for “ISIS” / “ISIL”] claimed responsibility for the assault.

“We won’t wait for the battle to be in Saudi Arabia,” the prince told the Saudi-owned broadcasting company MBC last year. “Instead, we will work so that the battle is for them in Iran, not in Saudi Arabia.”

His aggressive posture against Iran has won the support of US President Donald Trump and his administration, which pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal struck by President Barack Obama, whom the kingdom deeply distrusted.

Before becoming crown prince, MBS visited the White House and forged a close relationship with Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner. The two are believed to be working on the administration’s so-called “peace plans” for the “Israeli” entity and the Palestinians.

Trump made Riyadh his first stop overseas as president, a visit complete with Arab pageantry and opulence. Behind the scenes, many analysts believe Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates saw a greenlight to move ahead with the ongoing boycott of Qatar, a small Arabian Peninsula nation, over a political dispute.

Trump initially seemed to favor the boycott of Qatar, which is home to al-Udeid Air Base, the forward headquarters of the US military’s Central Command.

MBS also hosted a major business summit at Riyadh’s Ritz Carlton, complete with a humanoid robot named Sophia being awarded Saudi citizenship.

Only weeks later, the hotel turned into a luxury prison as part of a mass arrest of businessmen, royals and others orchestrated by MBS in a move described as targeting corruption. Those released agreed to sign over some of their assets, however, giving it the feel of a shakedown.

For now, the anger over Khashoggi’s disappearance appears to have galvanized international criticism of the young prince, about whom the columnist wrote critically for the Post.

Trump, already angry over rising global oil prices, has said he wants answers from Saudi Arabia and suggested Khashoggi’s fiancée could visit the White House.

Prominent American lawmakers also are indignant — though US-Saudi relations have survived even the 15 of the 19 Sept. 11 hijackers being from the kingdom.

The opaqueness of the Al Saud royal family makes it difficult to see what effect the controversy is having on support for MBS at home. State television continues to air footage of him attending meetings and greeting officials as if all is normal.

And as the son of the king, analysts say he has the full protection of the throne’s powers.

Once asked if anything could stop him, the prince gave a two-word reply: “Only death.”

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team