THE STRONGMAN OF THE HOUSE OF SAUD

NEW DELHI: Thirty years old, and he is not just one of the three most powerful men in Saudi Arabia but also the youngest to hold the defence ministry portfolio in the world. Ambitious and flamboyant, the new Deputy Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammad bin Salman is the son of King Salman Abdul Aziz Al Saud and today the one person who is seen to actually control access and determine policy.

It has been a meteoric rise for Prince Salman who came into the spotlights after his father reshuffled the order, bringing in the generation of ‘grandsons’ (of late King Abdullah) into the ruling hierarchy. The King’s nephew Mohammad bin Nayef was made the Crown Prince, and again in an unprecedented move a person outside the royal family---in fact Saudi Arabia’s Ambassador to Washington Abdel al Jubeir---as the Foreign Minister.

But it is the young Prince Salman who is now the cynosure of all eyes, as he opened his innings with the war on Yemen that has provided him with the eyeballs as he poses for photographs with injured Saudi soldiers. He is seen as ambitious, and ruthless, and clearly very close to his father, emerging as the “strongman” of the House of Saud. His father, 79 years old, is seen to be dependent on the young man who has the energy to keep a finger in every pie, from security to defence to business and finance.

Earlier Salman was running businesses, though the exact nature of his interests are not immediately known. However, keeping this in mind his father has appointed him as the head of one of the two powerful bodies of government, the Council of Economic and Development Affairs that gives him a supreme position insofar as economics and business in concerned. The King, after taking over, abolished the old National Security Council and Supreme Economic Council and replaced these with the economic council with Salman lead and the Council of Political and Security Affairs that is headed by Crown Prince Nayef. Salman is a member of the last as well.

What will this defence minister bring to his office? Clearly the new troika of the King, Salman and Nayef are conservatives, right wing, and close to the United States in the tradition of the Saudi household. Salman is seen as aggressive, judging from the war on Yemen, that has catapulted him on to not just the national, but the international arena. And judging from the Saudi propaganda he is being projected as the face of the war on Yemen, and will have to bear the flak if the move misfires as it is showing every indication of doing.

Significantly, the death of King Abdullah, the reshuffle that has brought in a new generation in command and the unrest in the region has given the new regime a window to breathe in from. The anger of the local population with the royal hierarchy for its close proximity to the United States, has dissipated into ‘another chance’ outlook. The unrest in Syria, Libya and Egypt seems to have contributed to this, more than factors, as the people are keen to retain some levels of stability---even if authoritarian and corrupt---than open the doors to chaos.