Newsmaker: Murder in the consulate: Pressure grows on Saudi crown prince
26/02/2021 19:23
Feb 26 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia's crown prince, accused in a
U.S. intelligence report of approving an operation to capture or
kill a prominent journalist, crushed dissent and sidelined
rivals in a push for power that has delighted admirers,
unsettled Riyadh's traditional foreign allies and shocked human
rights advocates.
A declassified U.S. intelligence assessment released on
Friday said Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman approved the
operation against Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a
royal insider-turned-critic who was killed at the kingdom's
Istanbul consulate in 2018 and his body dismembered.
The disclosure poses a fresh challenge to the 35-year-old
prince's reputation as the administration of U.S. President Joe
Biden places Saudi Arabia's human rights record under close
scrutiny. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2KW2I8
While Riyadh eventually admitted that Khashoggi was killed
in a "rogue" extradition operation gone wrong, it has denied any
involvement by the crown prince, often known in the West by his
initials MbS. The prince has said, however, that he accepted
ultimate responsibility as de facto ruler.
The murder undercut MbS's promotion of himself as a bold
reformer pursuing new freedoms in the conservative kingdom and
deterred some investors from the country -- the world's largest
oil exporter -- in the months after the killing.
Far-reaching reforms, including the listing of state oil
giant Saudi Aramco 2222.SE , have been accompanied by a
crackdown on dissent and activism and a secretive purge of top
royals and businessmen on corruption charges, which unnerved
some Western allies and potential business partners.
At the same time, the crown prince promoted a more sharply
assertive foreign policy in the region, pledging a tougher
stance against the regional influence of sworn foe Iran and
taking the kingdom, home to Islam's holiest sites, into a costly
and unpopular war in Yemen.
The approach was criticised by some Western diplomats and
commentators, who said Riyadh appeared at times a mercurial and
unpredictable force in foreign affairs, in contrast to the
considered and slow moving tempo of traditional Saudi diplomacy.
That included freezing out German firms and new trade with
Canada in 2017 over public remarks seen as critical of Saudi
foreign policy and its detention of women's rights activists.
MbS enjoyed strong ties with former U.S. President Donald
Trump that largely shielded him from Western criticism. After
Biden pledged to take a harder line on Saudi Arabia, the prince
made overtures seen by diplomats as showing he was a valuable
partner for regional stability.
The moves included a deal to end a bitter row with Qatar
that saw Saudi Arabia and its allies boycott Doha in 2017.
RESENTMENT WITHIN FAMILY
MbS rose from near obscurity after his father ascended the
throne in 2015, quickly building a global reputation as a bold
reformer intent on diversifying the oil-dominated economy and
modernising a kingdom long set in its ways. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N1X2266
He marginalized senior members of the royal family after
ousting an older cousin as crown prince in a 2017 palace coup,
and consolidated control over Saudi security and intelligence
agencies, stirring resentment within some branches of the
family, sources with royal connections have said.
Later that year, he arrested several royals and other
prominent Saudis, holding them for months at Riyadh's
Ritz-Carlton hotel in an anti-corruption campaign that caused
shockwaves at home and abroad.
On the economy, MbS announced sweeping changes labelled
Vision 2030 aimed at developing new industries to create jobs
for Saudis, tackling corruption and introducing fiscal reforms.
High-profile social reforms included allowing cinemas and
public entertainment and ending a ban on women driving.
While he is popular among young Saudis and has supporters
among many royals, some ruling family members resent Mohammed's
grip on power and questioned his leadership after unprecedented
attacks on Saudi oil plants in 2019, five sources with ties to
the royals and business elite said in late 2019. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N2B000H
In March 2020, authorities detained former crown prince
Mohammed bin Nayef and the king's brother Prince Ahmed in a move
sources with royal connections said was aimed at ensuring a
smooth succession.
RAPID CHANGE
MbS has embraced the media, unlike usually secretive Saudi
rulers. He featured prominently during a tour in 2018 to
persuade British and U.S. allies that "shock" reforms made the
kingdom a better place to invest.
The cornerstone of the economic transformation was selling
shares in Aramco 2222.SE . A listing on the domestic bourse
went ahead in 2019 after several false starts, briefly hitting a
towering $2 trillion valuation coveted by the crown prince, but
there was not enough investor appetite for a foreign offering.
On foreign policy, the prince was regarded by diplomats as a
prime mover behind the Yemen war, which the kingdom entered
weeks after he became defence minister in 2015, and a brief
kidnapping of then-Lebanese prime minister Saad al-Hariri in
Saudi Arabia in 2017.
The harder stance on Iran followed what some hawkish Saudi
officials regard as years of growing Iranian influence across
the Middle East, amid concerns that Washington, under former
President Barack Obama, turned a blind eye to what Riyadh sees
as a pernicious expansion of Iranian activity in Arab nations.
In a move that shifted the region's power balance, Riyadh
gave tacit approval to the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain
forging ties with Israel in 2020. Afterwards, MbS covertly met
Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu in the kingdom, although
Saudi officials denied the historic visit.
MbS has shown Saudi Arabia will brook no interference in its
domestic affairs. Saudi courts in early 2021 convicted a
prominent rights activist and a Saudi-U.S. physician, while
suspending most of their jail terms, in a nod to the Biden
administration's scrutiny of the kingdom's human rights.
(Editing by William Maclean)