Sneha Girap (Editor)

Mohammad bin Salman Al Saud

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In office
  
23 January 2015 –

Monarch
  
Salman

Predecessor
  
Khaled al-Tuwaijri


In office
  
23 January 2015 –

Monarch
  
Salman

Name
  
Mohammad Salman

Mohammad bin Salman httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonsff


Predecessor
  
Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud

Role
  
Defense Minister of Saudi Arabia

Spouse
  
Sara bint Mashoor bin Abdulaziz Al Saud

Siblings
  
Sultan bin Salman Al Saud

Parents
  
Fahda Bint Falah Al Hithleen AlAjami, Salman of Saudi Arabia

Grandparents
  
Ibn Saud, Hussa bint Ahmed Al Sudairi

Nieces
  
Sahar bint Sultan bin Salman Al Saud, Hala bint Sultan bin Salman Al Saud

Similar People
  
Salman of Saudi Arabia, Muhammad bin Nayef, Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, Sultan bin Salman Al Saud, Ibn Saud

King salman s palace coup and the saudi royal politics


Mohammad bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud (Arabic: محمد بن سلمان بن عبد العزيز آل سعود‎‎; born 31 August 1985), also known as MBS, is the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, First Deputy Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia and the youngest minister of defense in the world. Mohammad bin Salman is also president of the Council for Economic and Development Affairs. He has been described as the power behind the throne of his father, King Salman. He was appointed Crown Prince in June 2017 following his father's decision to remove Muhammad bin Nayef from all positions, making Mohammad heir apparent to the throne.

Contents

Mohammad bin Salman Saudi Arabias Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman life

Vladimir Putin high-fives Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman Al Saud at G20


Early life

Mohammad bin Salman Saudi Prince Mohammad bin Salman named defense minister Al Arabiya

Mohammad bin Salman Al Saud was born on 31 August 1985 in Jeddah. He is the son of King Salman from his third spouse, Fahda bint Falah bin Sultan bin Hathleen. She is the granddaughter of Rakan bin Hithalayn, who was the head of the Al Ajman tribe.

Mohammad bin Salman Saudi Defense Minister to Congress Iran Cant Be Trusted

Prince Mohammad bin Salman is the eldest of his full siblings and is the brother of Turki bin Salman, former chairman of the Saudi Research and Marketing Group. Prince Mohammad holds a bachelor's degree in law from King Saud University.

Mohammad bin Salman Prince Mohammed bin Salman SUSRIS

After graduating from college, Mohammad bin Salman spent several years in the private sector before becoming the personal aide of his father. He worked as a consultant for the Experts Commission, working for the Saudi Cabinet.

Mohammad bin Salman Saudi Arabias Muhammad Bin Salman and Iran Middle East Monitor

On 15 December 2009, Mohammad bin Salman entered politics as a special advisor to his father when the latter was the governor of Riyadh Province. At this time, Prince Mohammad bin Salman began to rise from one position to another such as secretary-general of the Riyadh Competitive Council, special advisor to the chairman of the board for the King Abdulaziz Foundation for Research and Archives, and a member of the board of trustees for Albir Society in the Riyadh region.

In October 2011, Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz died, and the current King Salman began his ascent to power by becoming second deputy prime minister and defense minister in November 2011 and making Mohammad bin Salman his private advisor.

Chief of the Court

In June 2012, Crown Prince Nayef bin Abdulaziz Al Saud died and Prince Muhammad bin Nayef moved up into the number two position in the hierarchy, as his father became the new crown prince and first deputy prime minister. He soon began remaking the court in his own image. On 2 March 2013, the chief of the Crown Prince court Prince Saud bin Nayef was appointed governor of the Eastern Province and Prince Mohammad bin Salman succeeded him in the post. He was also given the rank of minister. On 25 April 2014 Prince Mohammad was appointed state minister.

Defense Minister and Deputy Crown Prince

On 23 January 2015, King Abdullah died, Salman took the throne and Prince Mohammad bin Salman was appointed Minister of Defense. He was also named as the Secretary General of the Royal Court on the same date. In addition he retained his post as the Minister of the State.

In Yemen, the political unrest (which began escalating in 2011) rapidly became a major issue for the newly appointed Minister of Defense, with rebel Houthis taking control of northern Yemen in late 2014, followed by President Hadi and his cabinet’s resignation. In the context of an increasingly volatile neighboring situation, Prince Mohammad bin Salman’s first move as minister was to mobilize a pan-GCC coalition to intervene following a series of suicide bombings in Sanaa via air strikes against Houthis, and impose a naval blockade. In March 2015, Saudi Arabia began leading a coalition of countries allied against the Houthi rebels. According to the New York Times: «Although all agreed that the Kingdom had to respond when the Houthis seized the Yemeni capital and forced the government into exile, Prince Mohammad bin Salman took the lead, launching the war in March 2015 without full coordination across the security services.» Prince Mohammed bin Salman maintained restrictive coordination across security services and drove operations from the Maldives. Saudi National Guard Minister Prince Mutaib bin Abdullah, who was out of the country, was not in the loop of the operations, and US Secretary of Defense Ash Carter officially declared having trouble reaching him for days after the first strikes." While Prince Mohammad bin Salman sold the war as a quick win on Houthi rebels in Yemen and a way to put Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi back in power, however, it became a long war of attrition.

In April 2015, King Salman shocked the royal family by changing the old order and replacing designated successors by new ones. Muhammad bin Nayef and Prince Mohammad respectively became Crown Prince and Deputy Crown Prince."

Regarding his role in the military intervention, Prince Mohammad bin Salman gave his first on-the-record interview on 4 January 2016 to The Economist.[37] , which had called him the architect of the war in Yemen. Denying the title, he explained the mechanism of the decision-making institutions actually holding stakes in the intervention, including the council of security and political affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs from the Saudi side. He added that the Houthis usurped power in the Yemeni capital Sana’a before he served as Minister of Defense.

In Syria, in early 2015, Saudi Arabia supported the creation of The Army of Conquest mainly made up of the Al-Qaeda affiliate – Al-Nusra Front – and the ideologically similar Aurar al-Sham.

In April 2015, Muhammad bin Nayef and Prince Mohammad bin Salman respectively became Crown Prince and Deputy Crown Prince, under King Salman’s royal decrees.

Crown Prince

Mohammad bin Salman was appointed Crown Prince on 21 June 2017, following his father's decision to depose Muhammad bin Nayef, making him heir apparent to the throne. The change of succession had been predicted in December 2015 by an unusually blunt and public memo published by the German Federal Intelligence Service, which was subsequently rebuked by the German government.

On the day he became Crown Prince, U.S. President Donald Trump called Mohammad bin Salman to "congratulate him on his recent elevation". Trump and the new crown prince pledged "close cooperation" on security and economic issues, according to the White House, and the two leaders also discussed the need to cut off support for terrorism, the recent diplomatic dispute with Qatar, and the push to secure peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Mohammad bin Salman told the Washington Post in April 2017 that without America's cultural influence on Saudi Arabia, "we would have ended up like North Korea."

Political and economic reforms

On 29 January 2015, Prince Mohammad was named the chair of the newly established Council for Economic and Development Affairs, replacing the disbanded Supreme Economic Commission. In April 2015, Prince Mohammad bin Salman was given control over Saudi Aramco by royal decree right after being appointed deputy crown prince.

Prince Mohammad bin Salman took the leadership in the restructuration of Saudi Arabia's economy, which he officially announced in April 2016 when he introduced Vision 2030, the country's strategic orientation for the next 15 years. Vision 2030 plans to reform Saudi's economy towards a more diversified and privatized structure. It details goals and measures in various fields, from developing non-oil revenues and privatization of the economy to e-government and sustainable development.

Prince Mohammad bin Salman's biggest bet was his plan to restore the Saudi kingdom's dominance in global oil markets by driving the new competition into bankruptcy, by keeping the oil price low enough for a long enough period. Saudi Arabia persuaded OPEC to do the same. A few small players went bankrupt, but American frackers only shut down their less-profitable operations temporarily, and waited for oil prices to go up again. However, Saudi Arabia, which had been spending $100 billion a year to keep services and subsidies going, had to admit its defeat in November 2016. It then cut production significantly and asked its OPEC partners to do the same.

Prince bin Salman has successfully lobbied for regulations restricting the powers of the religious police. Prince bin Salman established an entertainment authority that has hosted comedy shows, pro wrestling events, and monster truck rallies. In an interview with Al arabia he also shared his idea for "Green cards" for non-Saudi foreigners.

The first measures undertaken in April 2016 included new taxes and cuts in subsidies, a diversification plan, the creation of a $2 trillion Saudi sovereign wealth fund, and a series of strategic economic reforms called the National Transformation Programme. Prince bin Salman plans to raise capital for the sovereign wealth fund by selling off shares of Saudi Aramco.Prince Mohammad bin Salman planned to raise capital for the sovereign wealth fund by selling off shares of Saudi Aramco, and the capital shall be re-invested in other sectors such as to implement the diversification plans.

Prince Mohammad bin Salman slashed the state budget, freezing government contracts and reducing the pay of civil employees as part of drastic austerity measures. Within hours of doing so, he bought the Serene.

Philanthropy

Mohammad bin Salman established himself as the chairman of the Prince Mohammad bin Salman Foundation, otherwise known as MiSK, which puts in place activities empowering and enabling the younger generation, in line with Vision 2030’s goals of a more developed. The foundation was a partner of the 9th UNESCO Youth Forum for Change in 2015.

The foundation focuses on the country's youth and provides different means of fostering talent, creative potential, and innovation in a healthy environment that offers opportunities in arts and sciences. The foundation pursues these goals by establishing programs and partnering with local and global organizations. It intends to develop intellectual capability in youth, as well as unlock the potential of all Saudi people. Saudi journalists traveling with Prince Mohammed on foreign delegations have been paid up to $100,000 in cash.

Controversies

Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s quick rise to power meant handling several roles at a time, such as Minister of Defense and Minister of State. Such concentration of power in the hands of Mohammad bin Salman has angered many of his relatives.

In September 2015, rumors claimed that the personal convoy of Mohammad bin Salman was responsible for the 2015 Mina stampede as it would have tried to force its way through the crowd.

In late 2015, Prince bin Salman attended a meeting between King Salman and U.S. President Barack Obama, where the prince broke protocol to deliver a monologue criticizing U.S. foreign policy. In addition, when Prince bin Salman announced an anti-terrorist military alliance of Islamic countries in December 2015, some of the countries involved said they had not been consulted.

On 10 January 2016, The Independent reported that "the BND, the German intelligence agency, portrayed...Saudi defence minister and Deputy Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman...as a political gambler who is destabilising the Arab world through proxy wars in Yemen and Syria." German officials reacted to the BND’s memo, saying the published statement "is not the position of the federal government".

In the beginning of 2016, Prince Mohammad bin Salman inflamed tensions with Iran by approving the execution of Nimr al-Nimr. Iran's Shia population replied by setting fire to the Saudi Arabia embassy in Tehran. Since then, the two countries have cut off diplomatic ties. This execution came together with the execution of 46 people, mostly Sunni jihadis or dissenters.

During the Saudi-led intervention in Yemen, thousands of civilians were reportedly killed in a major bombing campaign, prompting accusations of war crimes in the intervention. So far, the war has already cost the kingdom tens of billions of dollars and destroyed much of Yemen's infrastructures but failed to dislodge the Shiite Houthi rebels and their allies from the Yemeni capital.

Personal life

Mohammad bin Salman has a lavish lifestyle. One incident which illustrates this is his spur-of-the-moment purchase of the Italian-built and Bermuda-registered yacht Serene from Russian vodka tycoon Yuri Scheffler, for a price of €500 million reported by the New York Times magazine.

Mohammad has travelled extensively around the world, meeting with politicians, business leaders and celebrities. In June 2016, he travelled to Silicon Valley and met key people in the US high tech industry, including Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

Further information

  • Saudi Deputy Crown Prince: The War Will Be Waged in Iran, Not Saudi Arabia; No to Direct Dialogue with Iran, MEMRI TV, 2017
  • Saudi King’s Son Plotted Effort to Oust His Rival New York Times
  • References

    Mohammad bin Salman Wikipedia