Having a vision for his country is
good....but if it's a belligerent vision, there is a deep uncertainty about the
final outcome...
Is
Mohammed bin Salman doing well for the KSA ? Does he have the means of his
ambitions ?
Finally, is he the most dangerous man in the world ? I don't know but surely he
is dangerous for his country and for the middle east...
TERRA NOVA TUNISIE
The
most dangerous man in the world ?
Saudi Arabia’s defence
minister is aggressive and ambitious and his enemies within and without are
in his sights
When Mohammed bin Salman was just 12 he
began sitting in on meetings led by his father Salman, the then governor of
Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh Province. Some 17 years later, at 29 and already the
world’s youngest defence
minister, he plunged his country into a brutal war in Yemen with no end in
sight.
Now the kingdom of Saudi Arabia is
jousting dangerously with its regional foe Iran, led by a man seemingly in a
big hurry to become the Middle East’s most powerful leader.
Prince Mohammed was still in his early
teens when he began trading in shares and property. And when he ran into a
scrape or two, his father was able to take care of things. Unlike his older
half-brothers, MbS, as
he is known, did not go abroad to university, choosing to remain in Riyadh
where he attended King Saud University, graduating in law. Associates
considered him an earnest young man who neither smoked nor drank and had no
interest in partying.
In 2011, his father became deputy Crown
Prince and secured the prized Ministry of Defence, with its vast budget and lucrative
weapons contracts. MbS, as
a private adviser, ran the royal court with a decisive hand after his father
was named Crown Prince in 2012.
Every step of the way, Prince Mohammed
has been with his father , who took his favoured son with him as he rose in the hierarchy
of the House of Saud. Within the Saudi religious and business elite it was well
understood that if you wanted to see the father you had to go through the son.
MbS : the real power in the kingdom
Critics claim he has amassed a vast
fortune, but it is power, not money, that drives the prince. When Salman
ascended the Saudi throne in January 2015, he was already ailing and relying
heavily on his son. Aged 79, the King is reported to be suffering from dementia
and able to concentrate for only a few hours in a day. As his father’s
gatekeeper, MbS is
the real power in the kingdom.
That power was dramatically increased in
the first few months of Salman’s rule. Prince Mohammed was appointed Defence
Minister; put in charge of Aramco, the national energy company; made the head
of a powerful new body, the Council for Economic and Development Affairs with
oversight over every ministry; and put in charge of the kingdom’s public
investment fund. He was named deputy Crown Prince but ensured ascendancy over
his rival Mohammed bin Nayef, the
Crown Prince and Interior Minister, by absorbing the latter’s royal court into
that of the King’s.
Impatient with bureaucracy, MbS has
been quick to make his mark by demanding that ministries define and deliver key
performance indicators on a monthly basis, unheard of in a sclerotic economic
system defined by patronage, crony capitalism and corruption.
His sudden early
morning visits to ministries demanding to see the books is rapidly becoming the
stuff of legend, startling sleepy Riyadh into action and capturing the
admiration of young Saudis. “He is very popular with the youth. He works hard,
he has a plan for economic reform and he is open to them. He understands them,”
enthused one businessman.
That counts, because 70 per cent of the
Saudi population is under 30 and youth unemployment is running high, with some
estimates putting it at between 20 and 25 per cent.
But the same zeal with which he is
pursuing economic reforms has also led Saudi Arabia into a messy war in neighbouring
Yemen. Last March, he launched an aerial campaign against rebel Houthi
forces that had run the Saudi-installed President Abd Rabbuh
Mansur Hadi out
of the country. Decades of Saudi caution were thrown to the wind as MbS
presided over Operation Decisive Storm.
It must have seemed a very good idea at
the time: the young, ambitious son of an aged king leading a war against a
rebellion in a troubled southern neighbour. That the rebellion was supported by
Iran made the adventure even more attractive. The Saudi military was bristling
with new weapons – billions of dollars’ worth. MbS had a powerful older rival in the
Interior Minister and wanted to prove his mettle both to his rival and his own
supporters. The plan was to win a quick, decisive victory to confirm his
stature as a military leader, placing him in the same league as his grandfather
Ibn Saud, the great warrior king and founder of modern Saudi Arabia.
