Four years following the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in his country’s consulate in Istanbul, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has emerged from this scandal without fear of international outrage. Rather, Western leaders who had previously tried to isolate him are now seeking to support him.
US President Joe Biden, who accused the prince of ordering Khashoggi’s murder, is scheduled to visit the oil-producing kingdom on Friday, hoping to lower global oil prices.
Biden, who has previously said that Saudi Arabia should be shunned over Khashoggi’s assassination, will meet with the Saudi crown prince, who US intelligence believes was behind the killing.
According to a Archyde.com report, Biden, with this approach, follows in the footsteps of European leaders who condemned the killing of Khashoggi by a Saudi assassination squad in Istanbul in 2018, but agreed that they might not ignore the global energy giant and its de facto ruler, who will rule the kingdom for years to come, especially as he He is only 36 years old
Muhammad is waiting to inherit power from his aging father, King Salman, and the prince has already made his mark on the kingdom and the Middle East.
According to opponents, he succeeded in crushing dissent and marginalizing his opponents to consolidate his control inside the kingdom, while pursuing a more aggressive foreign policy in the region, and taking steps that delighted admirers and shocked human rights defenders.
Mohammed bin Salman ascended in semi-obscure circumstances, following his father assumed the throne in 2015, then marginalized senior members of the royal family following the overthrow of his older cousin, Mohammed bin Nayef, crown prince in a palace coup in 2017, and then arrested him later in March 2020. and strengthened his control over the Saudi security and intelligence services.
Later that year, he arrested several members of the royal family and other prominent Saudis, and held them for months in the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Riyadh in an “anti-corruption drive”.
Regarding the economy, Mohammed bin Salman announced sweeping changes aimed at developing new industries to create job opportunities for Saudis and introducing financial reforms.
Notable social reforms included allowing cinemas and public entertainment and ending the ban on women driving.
While he is popular among Saudi youth and has supporters among many members of the royal family, some members of the ruling family resent his grip on power and question his leadership.
The murder of Khashoggi, an insider turned critic, was a major blow to the prince’s prestige, as the crime deterred some investors and dramatically undermined Mohammed bin Salman’s presentation of himself as a reformer seeking new freedoms in the conservative kingdom and home to Islam’s holiest sites.
But in the face of the fact that the young crown prince might run the largest economy in the Middle East for decades to come, his critics abroad appear to have receded.
Ayham Kamel of the Eurasia Consulting Group said, “The entire attempt made by the West following Khashoggi to limit effective interaction with Mohammed bin Salman has gradually eroded, and Biden’s visit will put a bullet in this idea.”
Kamel believes that Biden is visiting Saudi Arabia in order to revive Saudi-US relations, in a turbulent geopolitical environment, due to the war in Ukraine and competition with China, “and because of energy issues and the kingdom’s regional influence, these relations need to be reformed.”
Under the crown prince’s oversight, far-reaching reforms, including the listing of the state oil giant Aramco, have been accompanied by a crackdown on dissent, the detention of women’s rights activists, and a secret purge of senior royals and businessmen on corruption charges.
At the same time, he pledged a tougher stance once morest the regional influence of archenemy Iran, taking the kingdom into a costly and unpopular war in Yemen.
The young prince had the support of former US President Donald Trump, but following Biden pledged to take a tougher stance on Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman made initiatives that diplomats see as showing he is an important partner for regional stability.
These moves included an agreement to end a bitter dispute with Qatar, following a years-long boycott, start direct talks with Iran to contain tensions, and reach a truce in Yemen.
But Saudi-US relations remain tense due to Washington’s restrictions on arms sales to the kingdom, and indirect talks between the United States and Iran to revive the 2015 nuclear deal without Gulf participation, and Biden has refused to deal directly with Mohammed bin Salman as the de facto ruler.
But Biden wrote in an opinion piece in the Washington Post on Saturday, saying, “I know there are many who oppose my decision to travel to Saudi Arabia. My views on human rights are clear and have long been established, and basic freedoms are always on the agenda when I travel abroad.”
As president, he wrote, his mission is to keep the United States strong and secure, and to put the country in the best position to excel in competition with China, confront Russian aggression, and work to achieve greater stability in an influential region.
