He will take over the leadership of Saudi Arabia after the death of his father. Mohammed Ben Salmane makes an official visit to France this Thursday and will be received by the Head of State, Emmanuel Macron, at the Elysee.
Nicknamed “MBS”, he was appointed crown prince of Saudi Arabia in 2017 to replace the 86-year-old King Salman. Mohammed Bin Salman, 36, could also become the youngest member of the Saudi dynasty to succeed to the throne.
A growing influence
He had chosen to stay in his country to study, unlike the Saudi elite who go abroad to train. MBS quickly combined several important functions in the economy and defense.
Even before he was named crown prince, he used his power to make 200 arrests, including ministers and princes, as part of a vast fight against corruption. Mohammed Bin Salman has managed to gain “extraordinary power and influence in a very short time,” Frederic Wehrey, a Middle East specialist at the Washington-based Carnegie Foundation, told AFP.
“He is an intellectual machine and a strategist,” a Western official quoted by AFP on condition of anonymity said. He is “sometimes impulsive” and, when he talks about his projects, “gets fired up”.
reformed the country
Since his appointment as Crown Prince, Mohammed Bin Salman has led de facto the country already, announcing several reforms. His “Vision 2030” plan aims to modernize the oil-dependent Saudi economy to gear it towards new technologies.
MBS also attacked the weight of religion in the country by sidelining the vice police, also known as the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice.
“We are going to destroy extremist ideas today, immediately,” the Saudi crown prince said in October 2017, according to comments reported by international mail.
Mohammed Ben Salmane, a monogamous father of three boys and two girls, had announced that he wanted “to return to what we were, a moderate Islam, open to all religions and to the world.”
Removed from the international scene
The murder of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018 in his country’s consulate in Istanbul caused MBS to remain on the sidelines of the international scene.
The Saudi crown prince is directly implicated in the events according to US intelligence services. In a report published in 2021, they consider that Mohammed Bin Salman “validated” the murder of the Saudi journalist.
At the end of 2021, the President of the French Republic, Emmanuel Macron, pays a first visit to MBS in Jeddah. He then explains talking to the crown prince so he can “work for the stability of the region”, while explaining not to be “complacent” with Saudi Arabia.
Since then, US President Joe Biden has also traveled to Jeddah on July 15 for an interview with Mohammed Bin Salman. This meeting was criticized by the fiancée of the murdered Saudi journalist, especially since the democrat had promised in 2019 to treat Saudi Arabia as a “pariah”.
Source: BFM TV
