Prince Salman: Saudi Reformer

The visionary leader behind a rapidly modernizing Saudi Arabia.

Hot History

Oct 28, 2023

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Early life

The Crown Prince’s father, Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, was born in 1935. Al Saud was the twenty-fifth son of the Kingdom’s founder. Starting at a young age, he held the governorship of Riyadh for almost half a century. It was a time of enormous transformation. Saud turned Riyadh from a small desert town into a booming urban settlement. The population soared from a hundred thousand or so into several million. It was during this period that young Muhammad, born in 1985, came of age. Little is known of his early life, or why he was favored by his father. Muhammad was the oldest son of his father’s third marriage. Salman was raised with many of the same worldviews as his father. He held similar positions regarding government corruption, the duties of the royal family, and the responsibility to sustain the Kingdom. Unusually, he did not study abroad. Upon graduation, he worked alongside his father in politics. At the age of 29, Salman was next in line for the throne. Like his father, he saw Iranian expansionism as the main threat to Saudi security.

Yemen offensive

Upon rising to power, Salman’s first move was to launch an offensive into Yemen. This was done to retaliate against a coup by Iranian-backed militants. The southern campaign was quickly planned, without really consulting the US. The Obama administration received little notice. It signaled that the Prince was willing to conduct Saudi foreign policy quite independent of Obama. Some royal elders regarded the invasion as too rash, but the Prince’s opinion prevailed. It was a bold move for the Saudis to fight a war outside its borders. But it was widely popular, because the Prince framed the conflict as a preemptive and painless intervention. Among the most staunch supporters of the Yemen campaign was Jamal Khashoggi. “If Saudi Arabia waited for Mr. Obama to approve an intervention in Yemen, Yemen would have been gone and lost a long time ago,” Khashoggi said. “It would be controlled by the Iranians and the Houthi.” He presented the war in Yemen as a fight to defend against Iranian hegemony. He even compared it to the fight against Nazi Germany in 1939.

Modern Saudis

Many Saudi elites were keenly aware that their Kingdom was in desperate need of cultural and economic reforms. The economy was too reliant on oil, whose prices fluctuate unpredictably. Youth unemployment was high. The private sector was weak. The economy was extremely insufficient. Women were kept out of public life. Corruption was endemic. The Saudi state was a backward tribal system of elders. But the Prince had a plan. Under Salman’s leadership, Saudi Arabia sought to import Western technology and entertainment, transforming the backward nation into a world-class tourist site. This was all part of his grand Vision 2030, which sought to modernize Saudi Arabia. To finance this, the Prince prepared to take the Saudi oil tycoon, ARAMCO, to the public. To expand the economy, Salman also needed to introduce some major social reforms. He pulled back the arbitrary powers of the religious police. Those zealots could no longer arrest people for spurious accusations of violating public morality. Women had been the primary victims, based on accusations of being immodestly dressed. Under Salman, women no longer had to deal with these religious impositions. Women became free to shop at malls. Gender segregation was relaxed. Salman’s reforms were something that had eluded Saudi leadership for the last half century. Out of those changes came a new Saudi identity. Religion was downplayed. Nationalism became more important. The Prince excitedly embraced this opportunity to establish Saudi Arabia at the forefront of Middle Eastern geopolitics.

Trump Era

Despite Salman’s promising improvements, questions still abound about the fate of the Saudi political system. Upon Trump’s election in 2016, Jamal Khashoggi expressed some reservations. Saudi authorities ordered him to keep quiet. The Obama administration had alienated Saudi Arabia with its negotiations with Iran. So the Crown Prince was especially eager to court the approval of the new Trump administration. President Trump chose Riyadh as his first foreign visit, and he was greeted with a special kind of grandeur. Posters depicting Donald were displayed across the country. A sword dance was performed to impress the American president. Bagpipes were played. Trump sought to repair the strategic alliance between the US and Saudi Arabia, which had frayed under Obama. Trump saw Saudi Arabia as an indispensable ally in the fight to curb Iranian expansionism in the region. The Prince resolved to help Trump and his son-in-law Jared Kushner resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In Salman’s vision, Israel would be accepted by the Middle East. During the visit, Trump agreed to an arms deal of over $100 billion. The Saudis were very happy with Trump. They now felt they could reliably count on American support in the fight against Iran. The Prince grew increasingly impatient with Qatar. For years, the Saudis accused the country of financing terrorist groups and being soft on Iran. They demanded that Qatar shut down its giant state-owned broadcasting giant Al-Jazeera. Trump was pleased. He supported Saudi Arabia and its 50 allies for cracking down on Qatari terrorist funding and extremist propaganda. However, Qatar is an American ally, and hosts the largest US military base in the Middle East. So Trump tried to negotiate a settlement between the two sides, but Qatar refused. Salman refused to lift his boycott on Qatar. Internally, Salman consolidated autocratic powers. He ran the Royal Court, and was both Defense Minister and Interior Minister. He was now the new Crown Prince, after the dismissal of Muhammad bin Nayef, King Salman’s nephew. Crown Prince Salman began to implement his ambitious reforms. Cinema had been banned for decades, but Salman eagerly sought to construct 350 theaters across the Kingdom. This created tensions between Saudi reformers and reactionary clerics. Much of Saudi dynamism came from its youthful demographic. Two thirds of the population is under age 30, and has one of the highest number of Twitter users in the entire Middle East. Twitter was fairly open. But Salman appointed Saud al-Qahtani, a close adviser, to keep a close eye on the social media platform. Relying on cybersecurity experts, the Saudi government engaged in secret surveillance of dissidents. Using the Israeli spyware Pegasus, the Prince’s government was able to virtually track the moves of their enemies.

Khashoggi crisis

Back in Saudi Arabia, Khashoggi had not been able to work for months. He was free to travel, but the Saudi government forbade him from writing. In September of 2017, Prince Salman began a crackdown on liberal-minded reformers. Many women, academics, writers, and activists were arrested. An economist who criticized ARAMCO was charged with terrorism. Democracy-minded religious figures, such as Salman al-Ouda, were jailed for minor offenses. Khashoggi left Saudi Arabia for greater press freedom. In Washington, he published his first column in the Washington Post, where he condemned Salman’s autocratic measures. In November, Lebanon’s prime minister, Saad Hariri, was invited to the Saudi palace. He was detained and abused. The Saudis accused him of not doing enough to counter Iranian influence in Lebanon. Suddenly, he was forced into a televised resignation. In his speech, he alleged that Iranian influence in the Middle East was the reason for stepping down. However, the aggressively anti-Iranian tone made it obvious that the resignation was forced. Hariri was eventually released, and restored back to power. The same day as Hariri’s detention, the Saudi government rounded up prominent businessmen and pressured them into making payments. On Twitter, Trump expressed his approval, regarding Salman’s move as an anti-corruption measure. But Khashoggi condemned the Crown Prince, accusing him of centralizing power. Reports of torture and abuse leaked out to the press. This was worsened by a growing international concern about Yemen’s humanitarian crisis. Despite Salman’s controversies, the Crown Prince was enthusiastically greeted at the White House. Trump pushed for more weapons sales. The Prince toured America for three weeks. His popularity soared. He was praised as a Saudi reformer, and an implementer of an Arab Spring revolution. Prince Mohammad made a special point of visiting Jewish-American groups. He openly recognized Israel’s right to exist. He granted his first-ever TV interview to 60 Minutes. In the interview, the Prince explicitly expressed his belief that women were equal to men. He pledged to promote women in Saudi leadership. After Salman returned home, the ban on women driving was lifted. However, this was accompanied by a crackdown on women’s rights activists. Accusations held that these women were tortured, stripped, and assaulted. Foreign minister Adel al-Jubeir denied those accusations. He insisted that the women in question were not activists, and had ties to foreign entities. The Saudi minister also denied that Khashoggi’s death was orchestrated by the regime, and pledged to reform the security services to prevent a similar occurrence. The Saudi official narrative changed many times in the following weeks. It appeared like a coverup. Surveillance footage showed a body double of Khashoggi. The Saudis claimed that Khashoggi was still alive. But this was contradicted after Turkish intelligence produced audiotapes. They were gruesome, and were not released to the public. Within a week, national security adviser John Bolton and Jared Kushner called Riyadh. Soon after, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo fled to Saudi Arabia to meet with the Crown Prince. But Salman’s complicity grew more incriminating. After weeks of denials, the Saudi state was forced to admit that it was premeditated. Fifteen Saudi agents were identified as flying into Istanbul. At least six of them had direct ties to the Saudi Crown. The case closed in on the Saudis. President Trump mocked it as the worst cover-up he had ever seen. The CIA concluded that the Prince himself ordered the assassination. Most of the Trump administration refused to comment, but Secretary Pompeo was adamant that there was no intelligence uncovering a direct order from the Saudi Prince. Immediately after Pompeo’s comments, the report was leaked to the press. Evidence became increasingly incriminating to the Crown Prince. But Prince Mohammed continued to promise that the real culprits would be brought to justice. Despite the controversy, President Trump remained firmly committed to maintaining the Saudi relationship. The Khashoggi murder was a terrible stain on Salman’s story. But none can deny that the Crown Prince did a lot to improve Saudi Arabia. Religious police were curtailed. Women’s rights were promoted. For the first time, Saudi women were free to drive, work, travel, and attend public concerts. Hopefully, the forward-thinking Saudi leader will continue to implement further reforms without resorting to repression and authoritarianism.