Mohammed bin Salman biography

Mohammed bin Salman biography

Mohammed bin Salman, full name Muhammad ibn Salman ibn Abd al-Aziz Al Said also known as MBS, (born 31 August 1985), member of the Saudi royal family, who served as Minister of Defense (2015–) and Crown of Saudi Arabia  Served as Prince.  Arab (2017–).  He is the son of Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz and his third wife Fahdah bint Fala ibn Suleiman.

early life

From a young age, Mohammad was interested in the government, lived in the shadow of his father and was conscious of his image.  Along the way he learned to communicate with a variety of dignitaries and to avoid the imprudent.  He attended King Saud University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia 

where he graduated in 2007 with a bachelor's degree in law.  He later founded several firms and a non-profit organization with the aim of promoting entrepreneurship in the state.  In 2009 he became a formal advisor to his father, who was then the governor of Riyadh.  As Salman rose in rank and influence, eventually becoming Crown Prince in 2012, his trusted son Mohammed was raised with him.

Minister and Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, despite being only 29 years old when his father

In charge of defense and economic policy

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia died in January 2015 and Salman became king.  He immediately appointed Mohamed as his defense minister.  Within a few months, Mohammed began an aggressive military intervention in Yemen's civil war.  Known as Operation Decisive Hurricane, the objective of the operation is to overthrow the government of the Yemeni President.  Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi has a decisive advantage against the Shia Houthi

insurgency in the north of the country.  It was thought that a Houthi victory could give Saudi Arabia's main regional rival Iran a foothold on Saudi Arabia's southern border.  The campaign, however, failed to turn the tide in the war and resulted in a prolonged standoff and one of the worst humanitarian crises in modern history.

Mohamed was also placed in charge of the state oil company Aramco and the Council on Economic and Development Affairs, the country's primary policy-making body for economic development.  He sought to open Aramco to an initial public offering (IPO) and launched bold development initiatives, such as his Vision 2030 plan designed to attract foreign investment to industries outside its energy sector.  However, some of these policies proved too ambitious.  Although he expected Aramco to launch the world's biggest IPO in early 2017, the move was repeatedly delayed.

Prince

Mohamed was appointed Crown Prince in June 2017 and has wasted no time in pursuing his audacious goals.  A few days later he led a multistate blockade against Qatar, not only for his friendly stance towards Iran but also for his support of rival non-state actors in the region such as the Muslim Brotherhood.  Although the blockade caused a crisis for Qatar in the short term, the country used its funds to move its economy away from dependence on its fellow Gulf countries.

At times his outspokenness overseas had the opposite effect and caused a backlash internationally.  In November 2017, Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri suddenly resigned under suspicious circumstances during a visit to Riyadh.  It was only after significant international pressure that Hariri was allowed to return to Lebanon, where he immediately suspended his resignation.  The circumstances behind the bizarre episode remained unclear, but Mohamed reflected the world's skepticism at an investment conference a year later when he cracked a joke about Hariri's kidnapping.

Around the same time as Hariri's awkward resignation, dozens of Saudi princes, business leaders and senior officials were arrested.  The maneuver was billed as an anti-corruption sweep.

But because the detainees were some of the country's richest and most powerful men – including mega-billionaire Prince al-Waleed bin Talal bin Abdulaziz Al Saud – many observers doubted that the sweep's real purpose was at the hands of Mohamed.  I wanted to gain power. 

Many were released only after relinquishing partial control of their businesses to the state or paying billions of dollars.  The Saudi government is believed to have collected more than $100 billion from the move.

Despite being clearly shaken, Mohamed was initially revered abroad as a reformer at home.  His policies began to ease, often to the conservative Saudi and Wahhabi religious establishment, many of the strict social restrictions Saudi Arabia was known for.

In line with her effort to promote tourism in the state, the ban on cinemas was lifted and women were allowed to participate in sporting events.  In 2018 she loosened the public dress code a bit, saying that women are not required to wear a long black cloak in publi.

Later that year women were allowed to obtain driving licenses, allowing women to go to work, go to school, or work without accompaniment.  Nevertheless, these moves towards liberalization appeared to be driven by economic gains and not by the desire for freedom.  While women were offered new options 

that allowed them to earn and spend money without the need to provide constant consent and transportation to their male guardians, the government also cracked down on women activists who fought for greater independence.  The pressure was on.

In October 2018, Mohammed plotted the extra-judicial murder of Jamal Khashoggi, a prominent journalist and exiled government critic who once served as an adviser and aide to the Saudi ambassador 8546_$_On the orders of Mohammed, Saudi operatives took Khashoggi to Istanbul.  He was taken to the Saudi consulate in the U.S., where they tortured and hacked him.  Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoan voices opposition to the assassination 

committed on Turkish soil against a dissident living in exile, raising international concerns of both the state's sovereignty and human rights.  The fallout was implied as the royal family continued to shirk responsibility for the incident, but Mohamed's image abroad was tarnished.

Mohammed once again detained fellow members of the Saudi royal family in March 2020.  Under investigation for treason, the detainees are said to have included princes very close to the throne, including King Salman's brother Ahmed and Mohammed bin's former Crown Prince Muhammad ibn Nayef.  Salman replaced him.