{"id":6716,"date":"2022-10-01T09:07:04","date_gmt":"2022-10-01T14:07:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/whia.us\/?p=6716"},"modified":"2022-10-01T09:07:04","modified_gmt":"2022-10-01T14:07:04","slug":"saudi-arabias-crown-prince-just-got-even-more-untouchable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whia.us\/en\/6716\/","title":{"rendered":"Saudi Arabia\u2019s Crown Prince Just Got Even More Untouchable"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nby Fred Kaplan<\/strong><\/p>\n

At first glance, it may seem shrug-worthy that the king of Saudi Arabia has named his son, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, to replace him as the country\u2019s prime minister. MBS, as the prince is known, has already been running the country, while his ailing father has served as a figurehead, for some time.<\/p>\n

But in fact, the promotion is likely a significant move, for reasons that have not been publicized: Assuming the title of prime minister protects the Crown Prince from a ruling of liability in a U.S. court\u2014and possible arrest while traveling abroad\u2014for his role in the 2018 murder of Saudi critic and American journalist Jamal Khashoggi.<\/p>\n

First, let\u2019s deal with the true power dynamics of the Saudi kingdom. When Barack Obama was president, I heard stories (which I\u2019ve since confirmed) about two senior U.S. officials meeting with Saudi King Salman in his palace office. While talking, the king gazed at a picture frame on his desk. Off in a corner, the crown prince\u2014who wasn\u2019t so famous at the time\u2014sat typing on his laptop. Gradually the officials realized what was going on: the dutiful son was typing what his ailing father, the king, should say; the picture frame was, in fact, an iPad (or some sort of tablet), and the king was reading aloud a script written by the prince.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s possible that the king\u2014who is now 86 and in declining health\u2014promoted his son this past Tuesday simply in order to preempt any challenges to his succession. Any uncertainties about the line should have been settled in 2017, when MBS detained dozens of members of the Saudi elite, including several cousins, keeping them locked up in luxury hotel suites\u2014some for as long as a year\u2014ostensibly on charges of corruption but also to compel their loyalty to the existing Royal Family power structure. Still, it\u2019s conceivable that incipient challenges still loom, which this move would preempt.<\/p>\n

But a more likely rationale for promoting the Crown Prince now is spelled out in a story by Stephanie Kirchgaessner in the Guardian (and confirmed to me by a former U.S. intelligence official who has kept up close contacts in the Middle East). Two years ago, Khashoggi\u2019s fianc\u00e9e filed a civil suit against MBS for kidnapping, torturing, and killing the journalist\u2014an American resident who has sharply criticized the Royal family\u2014inside the Saudi consulate in Turkey. The U.S. district judge in that case asked the Biden Administration to weigh in on whether MBS should be granted \u201csovereign immunity\u201d\u2014a concept, dating back to the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648, that, among other things, protects heads of state from being sued or tried in other countries. The Biden administration was given until Oct. 3\u2014this Monday\u2014to reply.<\/p>\n

It is debatable whether a defense minister and deputy prime minister\u2014the posts that MBS held until this week\u2014could be considered a head of state. It is beyond debate that the prime minister is a head of state. Now that MBS is prime minister, President Biden has no say in the matter (no doubt, to his relief); MBS, promotion in hand, now has sovereign immunity.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s true that, even if MBS didn\u2019t have sovereign immunity, U.S. authorities would have no way to enforce a judge\u2019s ruling against him. However, if the judge were to rule in favor of Khashoggi\u2019s fianc\u00e9e, the Prince\u2014if he remained mere deputy prime minister\u2014could face legal troubles on any trips to the United States and, possibly, to other countries as well.. However, as prime minister, he can relax.<\/p>\n

The U.S. intelligence community released a report last year, concluding that MBS \u201capproved an operation\u201d to \u201ccapture or kill\u201d Khashoggi and that he wields total control over the elite guard that carried out the crime. The report was an unclassified summary of a much larger investigation conducted during the Trump presidency\u2014though Trump ignored, even dismissed, its findings, choosing instead to believe MBS\u2019 denials of any personal culpability. Trump also said that it would be unwise to cut off MBS, citing the American jobs created by the billions of dollars in arms sales to the Saudi kingdom. When he entered the White House, Biden said he would hold the Saudis accountable\u2014and he has done so to a certain degree, ending the flow of certain weapons that the Saudis have used in Yemen. However, he has backpedaled in order to keep Saudi oil flowing, especially to European allies, after Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine. Biden was put in a spot by the U.S. district judge\u2019s request for a \u201cstatement of interest\u201d in the civil suit against MBS. Now, the spot is erased.<\/p>\n

Source: Slate<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Fred Kaplan At first glance, it may seem shrug-worthy that the king of Saudi Arabia has named his son, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, to replace him as the country\u2019s prime minister. MBS, as the prince is known, has already been running the country, while his ailing father has served as a figurehead, for …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":4785,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[142,199,128],"tags":[429,425,424],"series":[1027],"coauthors":[238],"class_list":["post-6716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-most-important-topics-en","category-top-stories","category-updates-en","tag-middle-east","tag-mohamed-bin-salman","tag-saudi-arabia","series-whia-synergy"],"episode_featured_image":"https:\/\/whia.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/\u0644\u0627\u0644\u0627\u0644\u0627.jpg","episode_player_image":"https:\/\/whia.us\/wp-content\/plugins\/seriously-simple-podcasting\/assets\/images\/no-album-art.png","download_link":"","player_link":"","audio_player":false,"episode_data":{"playerMode":"dark","subscribeUrls":{"apple_podcasts":{"key":"apple_podcasts","url":"","label":"Apple Podcasts","class":"apple_podcasts","icon":"apple-podcasts.png"},"stitcher":{"key":"stitcher","url":"","label":"Stitcher","class":"stitcher","icon":"stitcher.png"},"google_podcasts":{"key":"google_podcasts","url":"","label":"Google Podcasts","class":"google_podcasts","icon":"google-podcasts.png"},"spotify":{"key":"spotify","url":"","label":"Spotify","class":"spotify","icon":"spotify.png"}},"rssFeedUrl":"https:\/\/whia.us\/en\/feed\/podcast\/whia-synergy","embedCode":"

Saudi Arabia\u2019s Crown Prince Just Got Even More Untouchable<\/a><\/blockquote>