Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman named prime minister of Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud on Tuesday issued a royal decree to appoint Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as the prime minister.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman or MBS, who a US intelligence report said approved a journalist’s murder, has for several years shaken up the conservative oil superpower with economic, social and religious reforms since his meteoric rise to power.
MBS has overseen the most fundamental transformation in the modern history of the Gulf nation and sidelined all rivals after he became crown prince in June 2017. But he has also presided over a crackdown on critics, including prominent clerics, activists and royal elites, as well as faced a storm of condemnation over the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside the kingdom’s Istanbul consulate in October 2018.
MBS had pledged to forge a moderate Saudi Arabia and it remains to be seen how, as prime minister, MBS brings international investors on board with his grandiose vision to overhaul the kingdom’s oil-reliant economy.
