The story of Saudi Crown Prince 'MBS'' rise from obscurity

 Oil, power and the $450 million picture: The story of Saudi Crown Prince 'MBS'' rise from obscurity

Jonathan Rigman

Position, broadcaster and writer

August 19, 2024

In January 2015, 90-year-old King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia was near death in hospital and his half-brother Salman was about to become king. At the same time, his favorite son, Muhammad bin Salman, was busy preparing for the acquisition of power.

Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman, also known as 'MBS', planned one of the biggest projects in the history of Saudi Arabia at the age of just 29.

But he was afraid that conspiratorial elements within the Saudi royal family might take action against him. So one night in the same month, he summoned a senior security officer to his palace to gain his loyalty.

A security officer named Saad Al Jabri was asked to leave his mobile phone on a table outside and MBS did the same. Now they were both alone.

The princes were so afraid of spies in the palace that even the only landline telephone there was disconnected.

According to Al Jabri, MBS spoke during the conversation about how he would wake up his kingdom from its deep slumber and give it its rightful place on the world stage. By selling shares in Aramco, the world's most profitable company, they will begin to wean the economy off its dependence on oil. He will invest billions of dollars in Silicon Valley technology startups, including taxi company Uber. They will then create 6 million new jobs by giving Saudi women the freedom to join the workforce.

A puzzled Al-Jabri asked MBS about the extent of his ambitions and received the reply: 'Have you heard of Alexander the Great?'

After that, MBS stopped the conversation there.

The meeting, which started at midnight, was originally supposed to last for half an hour, but its duration extended to almost three hours. When Aljabri left the room after the meeting, there were several missed calls on his mobile phone from his colleagues working in the government. They were worried about his long absence.

For the past year, our documentary team has been talking to Saudi friends and opponents of MBS, as well as senior Western spies and diplomats.

The Saudi government was given an opportunity to respond to the BBC film and the claims made in the article. However, no response was given by them.

Saad al-Jabri was such a high-ranking official in the Saudi security establishment that he was friends with the heads of the American intelligence agency CIA and the British intelligence agency MICs.

The Saudi government has described Jabri as a discredited former official, but he is also the most informed Saudi defector who has dared to speak out about how Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman rules Saudi Arabia.

His interview gives us some surprising details.

By gaining access to many people who knew the prince personally, we shed light on the events that led to MBS's rise to influence and rise. These events include the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018 and the start of the devastating war in Yemen.

Because of his father's frailty, 38-year-old Prince Mohammed bin Salman is the acting ruler of the country where the religion of Islam began and which is now the world's largest oil exporter.

He has started implementing many of the important projects described to Saad Al Jabri. They have also been accused of human rights abuses, including suppressing freedom of expression, widespread use of the death penalty and jailing women's rights activists.

A failed start

At least 42 sons were born to the first king of Saudi Arabia, including MBS' father Salman.

The royal crown has traditionally been passed down between these sons. When two of them died suddenly in 2011 and 2012, Salman was promoted on the succession list and moved closer to power.

Western intelligence agencies are closely monitoring the Saudi royal family to determine who will be the country's next king. At that time, MBS was so young and unknown that he was not even on the radar of Western agencies.

Sir John Sievers, head of MI6 until 2014, says: 'He grew up in relative obscurity. He was not prepared to reach the pinnacle of power.

The Crown Prince was raised in a palace where there were few consequences for misbehavior and this also explains his habit of not thinking about the consequences of his decisions first.

MBS first rose to fame in his late teens in Riyadh when he was nicknamed 'Abu Rasasa' or 'Father of the Bullet'.

He allegedly shot a judge in the post who had ruled against him in a property dispute.

Sir John Sievers says, 'There was a certain ruthlessness about him. They do not like anyone to go against them. But he has been able to bring about changes that no other Saudi leader could bring.

One of the most welcome changes, says the former MI6 chief, is a cut in Saudi funding to foreign mosques and religious schools that have become breeding grounds for Islamic jihad.

MBS's mother, Fahda, is a Bedouin tribal woman and is considered the favorite of his father's four wives.

Western diplomats believe the king has been suffering from vascular dementia for years and MBS was the son he turned to for help.

Several diplomats recalled their meetings with MBS and his father, saying that the prince would write notes on an iPad, then send them to his father's iPad to get the same response.

British Prime Minister David Cameron's national security adviser, Lord Kim Derrick, recalls, "I wonder if MBS could have written those words in place of his father."

The prince was apparently so desperate to succeed his father as king that in 2014 he reportedly suggested killing then-King Abdullah with a poisoned ring obtained from Russia.

"I can't say for sure whether he was serious about it or not but we took it seriously," says Jabri.

A former senior security official says he has seen a secretly recorded video of MBS talking about it.

"For a long time he was forbidden to enter the court and shake hands with the king."

Shortly after, the king died of natural causes, allowing his brother Salman to take over the throne in 2015.

MBS was appointed Defense Minister and he wasted no time in starting a war.

The war in Yemen

Two months later, the prince led a Gulf coalition offensive against the Houthi movement, which had seized much of western Yemen and which it viewed as a proxy for Saudi Arabia's regional rival, Iran.

The war led to a humanitarian catastrophe that left millions on the brink of starvation.

Before the start of the war, British ambassador Sir John Jenkins said, "This is not a wise decision." A senior US military commander told me that he was given 12 hours' notice of a campaign which was unheard of.

This military campaign helped transform a lesser-known prince into a Saudi national hero. However, his friends also believe that this was the first of many big mistakes.

Their behavior shows continuity, such as MBS's tendency to buck the traditionally slow system of Saudi decision-making, preferring to act unexpectedly or impulsively and refusing to bow to the US or Rejecting being treated as the head of a backward state.

Jabri accused MBS of issuing a fake royal decree in his father's name.

Jabri says he discussed it at the White House before the Yemen war began, and President Obama's national security adviser, Susan Rice, warned him that the U.S. would only support the air campaign.

However, Jabri claims that MBS was so determined to make progress in Yemen that he ignored the Americans.

"We were surprised that a royal decree was issued to allow ground intervention," says Jabri.

He forged his father's signature for this royal decree. The king's mental capacity was deteriorating.

Jabri says the news source behind his allegation was "reliable and reliable" and belonged to the Ministry of Interior, where he was chief of staff.

Jabri recalled the CIA station chief in Riyadh at the time saying that he was so angry that MBS had ignored the Americans. He added that the attack on Yemen should never have happened.

Sir John Sowers, the former head of MI6, says that although he does not know whether MBS produced forged documents, "it is clear that the decision to intervene militarily in Yemen was MBS's, it was his decision." It was not the father's decision, although they could be reconciled.'

We have learned that MBS did not consider himself a part of this system from the beginning. They believed that they were young people who wanted to do a lot and didn't obey anyone's rules but their own.

Christine Fontainerose, who serves on US President Donald Trump's National Security Council, says that when she read the CIA's psychological profile of the prince, she realized something was missing.

"They had unlimited resources," she says. He was never told no.

"He is the first young leader to reflect a generation that, frankly, most of us in government have failed to understand."

                                   It is the world's most expensive artwork sold for $450 million

They made their own rules

In 2017, MBS bought a famous painting that gives an idea of ​​how he thinks. They are willing to take any risk in a religiously conservative society. Above all, they want to outdo the West in a show of force.

In 2017, a Saudi prince who allegedly worked for MBS spent $450 million on the painting 'Salvador Mundi', the world's most expensive art piece ever sold.

This painting was created by Leonardo da Vinci, in which Jesus is shown as the Lord of heaven and earth and the savior of the world. It has been completely absent for almost seven years since the auction.

Bernard Haykel, a friend of the crown prince and professor of Near Eastern studies at Princeton University, says that despite rumors that the painting is displayed on the prince's yacht or palace, it is actually kept in a store in Geneva and MBS sent it to Saudi Arabia. They plan to hang it in a museum in the capital that is yet to be built.

"I want to build a huge museum in Riyadh and I want an anchor object that attracts people like the Mona Lisa," Haikal said. '

Similarly, his projects for sports reflect someone who is extremely determined and fearless to disrupt the environment.

Saudi Arabia won the uncontested hosting of the FIFA World Cup in 2034. He invested millions of dollars in organizing tennis and golf tournaments, which has been called 'sports washing'.

But he is a leader who doesn't care what the West thinks about him, he does the opposite. They will do anything to make themselves and Saudi Arabia great.

"MBS is interested in building his power as a leader," says former MI6 chief Sir John Sowers. And the only way to do that is to increase the strength of their country. This is also the reason for their actions.

Jabri's 40-year career as a Saudi official did not survive MBS's reign.

As chief of staff to former crown prince Mohammed bin Nayef, he fled the kingdom after being told by foreign intelligence services that he was "now in danger" after MBS took office.

But Jabri says MBS messaged him unexpectedly and offered him his old job back.

Jabri says 'It was a hoax and I didn't come into it.'

They believe that if they were to return, they would be tortured, imprisoned or killed.

As happened with their teenage children Omar and Sarah. He was detained and later jailed for money laundering and attempted escape. He denies the allegations.

Jabri says that they had planned to kill me. They will not sit down from China until they see me dead. I have no doubt about it.

Saudi authorities have issued Interpol notices for Jabri's extradition from Canada, but have been unsuccessful.

He claims that he is wanted for corruption of billions of dollars during his tenure in the Ministry of Interior.

However, he was promoted to Major General and credited by the CIA and MI6 for helping to stop Al-Qaeda terrorist attacks.

Khashoggi's murder

It is very difficult to prove MBS's indifference to the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018.

The 15-member hit squad was traveling on diplomatic passports and included several of MBS's own bodyguards.

No trace of Khashoggi's body has been found and it is believed that his bones were dismembered.

Some time after the murder, Professor Heckel exchanged messages with MBS on WhatsApp.

Recalling their conversation, Professor Heckel says, 'I was asking how could this be?'

"I think they were in deep shock, they didn't expect such a reaction to the murder of Jamal Khashoggi."

Sometime later Dennis Ross met MBS.

Dennis explains that MBS said he did not kill and that "it was a huge mistake." I wanted to believe them because I myself could not believe that they could issue such orders.

MBS has always denied that he had prior knowledge of the plot. Although in 2019, he said that he took 'responsibility' for the murder as the crime took place under his watch.

A classified US report published in February 2021 insisted that MBS himself was involved in Khashoggi's murder.

To those who knew MBS closely, I asked them if MBS had learned from his mistakes or if he had been emboldened by the mystery of Khashoggi's murder.

In response to this question, Professor Heckel said, "He has learned his lesson the hard way." has been used.

However, they are trying their best to ensure that an incident like the murder of Khashoggi never happens again.

Sir John Sowers agreed with Professor Heckel, saying that Khashoggi's murder was a turning point in MBS's life after which he had 'definitely learned some lessons'. However, his personality is the same.

MBS's father is 88 years old. When he dies, it is likely that MBS will rule Saudi Arabia for the next 50 years.

However, recently he has expressed fear of being killed, which may be due to his attempt to normalize relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel.

"I think there are going to be a lot of people who want to kill him and they know it," says Professor Heckel.

However, MBS is kept safe by the constant vigil around him. This was considered by Saad Al Jabri when MBS was about to come to power and before speaking to him, MBS removed the telephone wires of his palace from the wall.

However, MBS is still on a mission to modernize his country, which his forefathers could not do.

But he is not the first dictator whose people around him have the courage to stop him from making more mistakes. Maybe that's what makes them even tougher.

Related Topics

#Saudi Arabia #Arab world #Human rights #Muslim #The Middle East #Palestine #Religion #Israel