Mohammed bin Salman (MBS)

Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud (Arabic: محمد بن سلمان آل سعود, romanized: Muḥammad bin Salmān Āl Su‘ūd; born 31 August 1985), commonly known by his initials as MBS or MbS, is the de facto ruler of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,[1] formally serving as Crown Prince and Prime Minister. He is the heir apparent to the Saudi throne, the seventh son of King Salman of Saudi Arabia, and the grandson of the nation's founder, King Abdulaziz.

Mohammed is the first child of King Salman bin Abdulaziz and his third wife, Fahda bint Falah Al Hithlain. After obtaining a law degree from King Saud University, he became an advisor to his father in 2009. He was appointed deputy crown prince and defense minister after his father became king in 2015, then promoted to crown prince in 2017. Mohammed succeeded his father as prime minister in 2022.

Mohammed leads an authoritarian government. Those regarded as political dissidents are systematically repressed through methods including imprisonment and torture; citizens face arrest for social media posts that mildly criticise government policies.[2][3][4] A 2021 report by the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) found that Mohammed had ordered the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Between 2017 and 2019, he led the purge of competing Saudi political and economic elites, seizing up to US$800 billion in assets and cash and cementing control over Saudi politics.

Since his appointment as crown prince in 2017, Mohammed has introduced a series of social and economic reforms; these include curtailing the influence of the Wahhabi religious establishment by restricting the powers of the religious police and improving women's rights, removing the ban on female drivers in 2018, and weakening the male-guardianship system in 2019. His Saudi Vision 2030 program aims to reduce Saudi economy's reliance on oil through investment in other sectors such as technology and tourism, which has contributed to greater diversification of the economy;[5] however, the country remains heavily reliant on oil.[6]

Under Mohammed, Saudi Arabia has pursued an "aggressive"[1] foreign policy aimed at increasing the country's regional and international influence and attracting greater foreign investment.[7] The Kingdom has coordinated energy policy with Russia, strengthened its relations with China, and expanded diplomatic and commercial relations with emerging economies and regional powers in Africa, South America, and Asia.[7] Mohammed was the architect of the Saudi-led intervention in Yemen and was involved in the escalation of the Qatar diplomatic crisis, as well as a 2018 diplomatic dispute with Canada. Amid the Israel-Hamas war, according to reporting by The Atlantic, Mohammed reportedly told U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in January 2024 that he was still open to Saudi normalization with Israel, adding, "Do I care personally about the Palestinian issue? I don’t, but my people do."[8][9]

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammed_bin_Salman