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In January 2015, 90-year-old King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia lay dying in hospital. His half-brother Salman was about to become king, and Salman’s favorite son, Mohammed bin Salman, was preparing to take power. The prince, known by his initials as MBS, was just 29 years old at the time and had grand plans for his kingdom, the biggest in Saudi history, but he feared that conspirators within the Saudi royal court would eventually turn against him. So, at midnight one night that month, he summoned a senior security official to the palace, determined to win the official’s loyalty.
The official, Saad al-Jabri, was asked to place his phone on a table outside. MBS did so. Now the two were alone. The young prince was so afraid of palace spies that he unplugged the wall socket and disconnected the only landline.
MBS then talked about how to awaken the sleepy Saudi kingdom and take its rightful place on the global stage, according to Jabri. MBS would begin to wean the Saudi economy off oil by selling off a portion of Saudi Aramco, the country’s state-owned oil producer, the world’s most profitable company. He would invest billions of dollars in Silicon Valley tech startups, including the taxi company Uber. Then, by freeing Saudi women to join the workforce, MBS would create 6 million new jobs.
Jabri was surprised and asked the prince how ambitious he was. The prince replied, “Have you heard of Alexander the Great?”
MBS ended the conversation. The midnight meeting, originally scheduled for half an hour, had already lasted three hours. When Jabri left the room, he found several missed calls on his phone from government colleagues who were worried that he had been missing for a long time.
Posts Power, oil and a $450 million painting: The inside story of the rise of Saudi crown prince QGN First appeared in Qatar Gulf News | What’s happening in the Middle East.
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