Mohammed bin Salman, Prince of The Saudis

"I am Mohammed bin Salman, better known by my initials, MBS. " "I'm 34. " "I'm the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia.

" "I am accused of murdering a journalist and kidnapping a foreign leader. " "I'm waging a bloody war in Yemen and repressing any opposition. " "People think I'm impulsive and unpredictable," "yet they receive me with full honors.

" "My kingdom holds the world's largest oil reserves. " "It influences the whole world's economy. " "I possess the Muslim holy sites.

" "I am the Western world's arms industry's biggest client. " "I'm a key partner in the fight against terrorism. " "I'm carrying out reforms" "that will both transform my country and enrich you.

" "I'm indispensable. " "I am your ally," "but you have to pay the price for that. " What is Mohammed bin Salman thinking?

What is he up to? On the death of his father, he could rule Saudi Arabia for decades and become a familiar figure in tomorrow's world. His and our futures are entwined.

MBS's father, Salman, ascended to the throne of Saudi Arabia on January 23, 2015. At 85 years old and in poor health, his first act was to designate a crown prince to succeed him. Power in the House of Saud isn't passed from father to son, but between descendants of the founder.

Salman's choice fell on the powerful Mohammed bin Nayef, known as MBN. At 56 years old, he's a long-serving interior minister and a graduate of an American university. The king surprised everyone by appointing his son to the strategic post of Minister of Defense and the Economy.

At just 30 years old, MBS, his father's favorite son and raised in his shadow, had no government experience. This appointment of a virtual unknown was most intriguing, far beyond the royal palaces, and to New Yorker Joseph Westphal, the new United States ambassador and Riyadh's guardian. I was very new there, and I asked who that was.

I did what you normally do in the world today, you Google somebody. I started to google a bit on my own and tried to understand. I asked for a meeting with him.

For the royal family behind the closed palace doors, his youth, far from being a handicap, is an asset, for these are perilous times for the House of Saud. Good evening to all! May God grant you a long life, Prince Mukrin.

I am your father's uncle and the brother of your grandfather. Be welcome. The new minister has come to his uncle's house, accompanied by his children, to attend a family reunion.

This aging and wealthy generation knows that it's running out of steam and disconnected from the real country. Half of the kingdom's 34 million inhabitants are under the age of 25. They feel aimless and here, in the homeland of Wahhabism, they're suffocating under the weight of all that's forbidden.

The Sauds fear that they will eventually revolt. During a visit to a US aircraft carrier off the coast of Saudi Arabia, the new minister confides in the ambassador. I understood, and we talked about this a lot, that Saudi Arabia was headed for a disaster here.

A very extensively large young population, very connected to the rest of the world, with lots of expectations. The Sauds are still shaken up by the Arab Spring that four years earlier saw the people rise against their dictators. Protest movements regularly break out, only to be quelled.

[Arabic spoken audio] The feminists are calling for basic rights, such as the freedom to drive or the curbing of the powers of the religious police. What do you want? Are you following me because I painted my nails?

He understood the dilemma his country was in. We talked about bringing back cinema, bringing music, art, and culture back to the kingdom. He was definitely in favor of opening all of that up.

However, he was also, and I have to give him credit for that, not naive to think that he could do that just by virtue of issuing orders. Again, it's a conservative country. He understood the politics of this.

The prince knows that if he ever wants to transform his country, he must first make his mark. To do so, he surrounds himself with a new generation of totally dedicated advisors. Ali Shihabi belongs to the Saudi elite who were educated abroad.

A Harvard graduate and a banker, he leaves it all behind to serve MBS. You need a strong leader to effect change. If you're a weak leader, nothing will happen.

One of the problems in Saudi Arabia. . .

We've had no drama over the last 30 years, but also little has happened. I saw in him special qualities, particularly strength of personality and boldness. Frankly, you need that.

At the gates of his kingdom, there are many opportunities to prove himself by confronting his country's enemies. In March 2015, in Yemen, a poor country to the south of Saudi Arabia, the capital Sanaa is taken by rebel forces. The Houthis have the backing of the sworn enemy, Iran.

The regime of the Mullahs has long sought the fall of the House of Saud, whom it accuses of being the pawn of America and defender of an impure Islam. Death to the Saudis! The Sauds feel besieged by Iran and its constantly expanding presence in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and now in Yemen.

Without your strength and will, nothing will be possible. May God be with you. Thanks to God, we will go from victory to victory!

Two months after taking office, the young defense minister orders his army to go to war. Without even notifying his American ally, he launches an aerial bombing campaign. People say that he was a young, impulsive man who decided to go to war.

Absolutely not. Prince Mohammad didn't want to call the White House, because the Americans are always saying: "You want to fight Iran until the last American. " He said: "No, we're going to do it," and he went to war.

An Iranian ally taking control of Yemen was totally unacceptable. MBS may well feel confident. It's the first time in its history that the kingdom has waged war, but it has the fourth-largest military budget on the planet and the support of its Emirati ally.

A more seasoned leader would know, however, that the defeat of a guerrilla force is never a sure thing. I've spoken to him about Yemen, not just through WhatsApp, but also in person. Initially, there was a sense that this could be won quickly.

My argument was that the war can't be won militarily against the Houthis. He who sells his soul to the Saud, he who sells his soul to the Saud, this is his punishment! Death to America!

Death to Israel! One has to think of other ways, negotiation, patronage. He listens.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who tells him this. He says: "Listen to what the Iranians say. " "They say death to America and Al Saud.

" He's compared Ayatollah Khamenei to Hitler. He sees Iran as a revolutionary state that will not stop until the regime in Saudi Arabia is destroyed. In the name of God, take off and be blessed!

If MBS won't listen to calls for caution it's also because this war can lend him the stature of a warlord. It's an entirely new image in a country hitherto ruled by cautious old men. The war is popular, and it makes him popular.

In reality, though, his army is gradually getting mired in a bloody and ruinous conflict, with no way out. From 2016, the country is even targeted by Houthi missiles. MBS turns to his allies.

He felt strongly that something should be done. He wanted more help from us to help them defeat the Houthis. However, we were very committed to a peaceful settlement of that issue.

His allies are under pressure from public opinion who is shocked at the use of Western weapons in a conflict that's creating millions of refugees, famine, and much loss of blood. The decision was made to support them, not with military force, but with technical assistance and support to make sure their forces can protect their sovereignty. The West and America have been very careful not to get involved in any offensive way.

However, Saudi Arabia has spent a lot of money and built its military with Western support, and it requires ammunition and supplies. If that does not come, Saudi Arabia will take its business elsewhere. This is not foreign aid coming from the West.

This is being paid for at top dollar. MBS feels let down by his closest allies, above all by America. Barack Obama, whose country no longer depends on Saudi oil, is disengaging from the Middle East.

Worse still, when he goes to Riyadh in 2016, to their amazement, it's to announce the signing of a nuclear agreement with the sworn enemy of the Saud. None of our nations have an interest in conflict with Iran. We welcome an Iran that plays a responsible role in the region.

The first problem is they felt that they'd not been consulted. It came as a surprise as there was this secret backchannel. They felt that this administration was going too far to try to reach a deal with a country that they considered an enemy.

If Saudi Arabia is being treated like this by its historical ally, that's also because it's getting bad press in the West. Finally, true and lasting security also depends on governance that serves all its citizens and respects universal human rights. Off camera, there's a revealing incident.

The president was very concerned about the penalties that were given to individuals for a Twitter message. They'd be sentenced to a thousand lashings, ten years in jail, 16 years in jail, and the president would point those things out. The king responded in some way.

Then before the meeting was over, Mohammed bin Salman stood up and spoke, which is quite unusual. The young minister even goes so far as to tartly suggest the US president took a course in Saudi law. "This is our system, we have our courts and judges.

" That was the striking moment of that visit. I'm overstating it, but it was clear who was boss, or at least who had the ability, capacity, and the desire to push back, and it was Mohammed bin Salman. Within the US administration, some are alarmed at his rise to power.

In their eyes, the bloodshed only confirms his reputation. I cover the intelligence community and pay close attention to Saudi Arabia. People on my beat, in the US intelligence community, the CIA in particular, were very unnerved by Mohammed bin Salman.

They thought he was extremely young and untested. There was a sense that he was impulsive and had a very binary view of relations in the Middle East. They thought he might be unstable, because they have so much intelligence on what goes on inside the palace.

He's quite the opposite of the experienced Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, now, more than ever, the favorite of the Americans. The Americans can't decide who becomes the successor in Saudi Arabia, but there's a game or competition in Saudi Arabia between princes as to who has the most and best access to the United States. If the person who is selected can then develop a special relationship with the President of the United States and show that he has special access, that works to reinforce his power base.

Six months later, it's a whole new game. MBS is pleasantly surprised to see a man entering the White House who opposed Obama's Iranian policy. The prince is forever trying to convince his father to send him, not MBN, to Washington.

In March 2017, he got his way. At the time, as an advisor to Donald Trump, Steve Bannon was in charge of the Saudi dossier. When MBS first came over, he was deputy crown prince, he was not the crown prince.

I felt that was pretty extraordinary. When people said he's impulsive, yes, maybe he is impulsive. I also thought that the royal family had thought this through enough, that if they're sending the deputy crown prince, that's the guy.

For MBS, this trip to Washington is a rite of passage. Today we are facing a very serious danger in the region and the world. .

. [Arabic spoken audio] When it comes to the hostile activities of the Iranian regime that is supporting the extremists and terrorists in the region and the world. We're optimistic under Trump's leadership.

Those three or four days in Washington were very intense because it was meeting after meeting. What I saw was someone who was very well prepared, had been well-briefed, and knew what he was talking about. What's most impressive is this charisma and dynamism.

He can charm anyone he encounters. From the number of people that he met, extremely cynical people were charmed by him. He knew exactly which buttons to push and what message to present in order to charm others.

It's a skill. When it suits him, MBS knows how to use this other facet of his personality, especially when it comes to convincing a former businessman of his desire to reform his country. We were very impressed, he's very impressive.

First, this is a fundamental restructuring of the Saudi Arabian economy. That's what he's trying to open up to the Western world, or trying to open up to modernity. He has a sense of urgency.

That fit well with Trump, because Trump is a businessman who is like: "Let's get on with it. " "Things should be happening today. " My sense was that MBS was the same way.

With Trump's seal of approval, he has just one more bridge to cross. One month later, on June 20th, 2017, in a palace in Mecca, this scene is filmed. I pledge allegiance to you.

Despite appearances and all the marks of respect, his cousin is forced to cede his place to him. May God reward you and grant you a long life. This is a relief to me, may God protect you.

I will always listen to your wise advice. MBN will no longer appear in public, no doubt placed under house arrest. The ambitious Mohammed bin Salman is appointed heir to the throne.

Just two years after arriving in the spotlight, he has managed to impose himself and prove himself in the eyes of his father. The infirm King Salman takes a back seat and hands the power to him. At 32 years old, he's in control of a kingdom.

Without delay, the new potentate makes some decisions that are both spectacular and symbolic. Within months, he has abolished the religious police, the Mutawa, and granted women the right to drive and choose not to wear the veil. We have another lovely story about a brother who's lent his car to his sister!

Finally, he allows public concerts and cinemas, all previously banned. He has brought a veritable revolution to the homeland of Wahhabism. Today, 70% of the Saudi people are under the age of 30.

Frankly, we're not going to spend another 30 years of our lives putting up with extremist ideas. Let's return to a moderate Islam, open to the world. MBS is shaking up the powerful religious establishment, which until now has been a pillar of the monarchy.

We all expected that he would face a lot of opposition. The religious will either have to go along with it, like this leader of the influential Salafists, or suffer the consequences. Months before the law allowing women to drive was announced, he arrested about 70 to 80 clerics and sent a very powerful message: "I will not tolerate any resistance from you.

" I think it has worked. The grumbling has been very quiet. A few months later, MBS sends a Western acquaintance on WhatsApp this video of a rap concert, with the comment: "It was either this or the Islamists.

" I can't believe I am standing in Jeddah right now. My heart is pounding. I feel like I'm part of this, so thank you.

Is MBS a progressive? Is he even a feminist? Whenever I speak to MBS I see that ideology is not very important.

Survival and political power, adopting pragmatic and practical policies that lead to the survival of the dynasty, are much more important. It is indeed about survival. By opening up his country, his goal is twofold, to offer an indispensable breath of oxygen to young people and to the Western world, to present a better face at a time when that is sorely lacking, for the kingdom he is inheriting is on the edge of a precipice.

The House of Saud may well be as rich as Croesus, but it's incapable of funding the country's lifestyle. Its 34 million subjects pay no taxes, nor for water or electricity. Two-thirds of them are employed by the government, often doing nothing.

However, 80% of the kingdom's revenues come from oil. Its price is collapsing, and in the last few years, it has halved. The worst is yet to come.

Western demand is decreasing, and in a few decades, the reserves will be depleted. Already, 12% of the population are living below the poverty line. In Saudi Arabia, you will be shocked.

In Riyadh, forget the rest of the country, we don't have a bus service. You can't take a bus in Riyadh. There is no metro.

There is no sewage network. The bathroom water in every house goes to a hole in the ground that everybody has to dig, and then every other month, somebody has to come, suck it out, and take it somewhere. This is almost 80 years after we started to export oil.

The word "austerity" is for the first time entering the Saudi vocabulary. No more public servants are being hired. Subsidies have been reduced, and the first taxes have been introduced.

That's all a stopgap. In the long term, MBS knows that he needs a modern and productive economy, and he knows he can't do it alone. Mohammed bin Salman's survival depends heavily on foreign investment to modernize Saudi Arabia and make it less dependent on oil.

If he doesn't deliver the economic promises, then he'll have no legitimacy in Saudi Arabia. In the autumn of 2017, the prince holds a lavish conference in Riyadh for an audience of Western businessmen. He needs both their money and their talents to develop infrastructure, businesses, and create jobs.

There is something of a revolution happening here in Saudi Arabia as the kingdom looks to grow. His plan is called Vision 2030, named for the predicted end of oil money by that year. Your Highness, you have foreigners and foreign businesses watching.

What do you need most to make this a reality? All the success factors are in place to create something great in Saudi Arabia. Thanks to these opportunities, thanks to this almost empty country, we're looking to develop and create a new way of life.

To attract investors, he proposes a series of projects on a Pharaonic scale. The largest expanse of solar panels in the world. A tourist city aimed at attracting two million tourists a year.

A giant-sized industrial city, and NEOM, city of the future on the Red Sea, a hundred times the size of Paris and populated in part by robots. [Arabic spoken audio] Potential investors are anything but dreamers. All the tens of millions spent on communication, huge conferences, and videos leave them, at best, skeptical.

It was good, but it's somewhat unrealistic. I think there's a tendency on the part of Saudis to have big events and bring in top people. In the end, you don't get much from that.

To finance his economic projects, he still has his crown jewel, the oil company Aramco, with its brand-new headquarters. He's hoping that its partial privatization will bring hundreds of billions into the kingdom's coffers. We have the vision and the resources.

. . However, even this prospect is met with skepticism from investors.

However, at Saudi Aramco, we've taken it one step further. This is King Salman Park. The Westerners are taking their time.

However, patience isn't one of Mohammed bin Salman's qualities. His reforms are stalling. The civil servants are dragging their feet and the state coffers are emptying dramatically.

MBS comes up with one of his typical solutions. In October 2017, he has 380 businessmen and princes, among the richest and most powerful in the kingdom, sequestered in a big hotel. They are accused of corruption and forced to hand over part of their fortune.

This brings 100 billion dollars into MBS's coffers, but this extraordinary purge scares the Western investors it needs to seduce. The long detention of Prince Alwaleed makes them think. This is my Diet Pepsi.

The richest man in the country, a world-class economic player, shareholder in Disney, Apple, and Twitter ends up ceding part of his fortune to the Crown Prince. Prince Alwaleed had been a client of my firm back in the early 1990s. It was quite shocking considering these are very prominent businessmen.

Clearly, some major changes were going on. It was a very original way of addressing a very serious problem, which is elite entitlement. Somebody once said to me: "He bought a yacht.

" I said: "The country can afford one yacht. " "It can't afford 50 yachts. " It's a question of us having many centers of power, and each one was very expensive for society.

Ali Shihabi is alluding to the yacht that MBS just bought for himself, worth half a billion dollars, plus the most expensive house in the world and the most expensive painting, bought for 450 million dollars in November 2017. The young prince is ambitious to modernize his country but is subject to his power and under his total control. Although he grants his subjects some new freedoms, he doesn't tolerate any political dissent.

Where are the women and the human rights activists who've been arrested? Think about that. The people should have the power.

Think what authority means. This academic will be imprisoned, as will many prominent feminists who claim more than the right to drive. The political climate in our country is very bleak.

It is the worst since the foundation of Saudi Arabia. We have the greatest number of political prisoners, the largest political executions. He has arrested people.

You have reduced the margin of freedom of speech. I think that during this period of tremendous change, as you're going over a waterfall, you have to hold the country tightly. You need somebody authoritarian who says: "I'm going to do this.

" "This is the law and the way we'll do it, and you'll have to follow," because if you let political forces loose, they can go out of control. The best bet you can get is to get a benevolent autocracy. That's an art, it's not a science.

When despotism, however enlightened, is combined with both inexperience and a quick temper, it can be an explosive mixture. In the autumn of 2017, overnight, MBS orders a land and air blockade of its neighbor, Qatar. He accuses it of supporting his Islamist enemies, the Muslim Brotherhood, and of holding talks with Iran, but also, giving airtime on its channel, Al Jazeera, to his opponents, as here, a certain Jamal Khashoggi.

Jamal, you've compared your crown prince to Putin and Iran's supreme leader. You've said he's creating "an interesting form of dictatorship. " How so?

I still see him as a reformer, but he is gathering all power within his hand. When the embargo doesn't make the Qataris bend, one of MBS's advisors goes so far as to suggest digging a canal to turn the peninsula of Qatar into an island. Soon after, MBS kidnaps a serving prime minister.

The Lebanese Saad Hariri, who is also a Saudi citizen, is invited to a picnic in the desert, arrested, and forced to resign from Riyadh. MBS accuses him of being too easy on Hezbollah, Iran's armed militia. [Arabic spoken audio] In the face of international outcry, the prince accepts the mediation of the President of France, the traditional protector of Lebanon.

MBS had set a trap and had to find a way out. Macron was there for three hours, and the meeting was tense, because Emmanuel Macron explained the rationality that should preside over relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran, implying that Mohammed bin Salman's current behavior was irrational. The prince ends up releasing Saad Hariri, with a check for a billion dollars to Lebanon by way of apology.

He doesn't want his impetuous methods to harm the project so crucial to his future and that of his kingdom. Therefore, in the spring of 2018, he launches a huge charm offensive aimed at Westerners. To promote himself, MBS has the largest communications budget in the world and employs the biggest public relations agencies, as well as an army of lobbyists.

It opens a lot of doors. It's like a big rock star tour. In three weeks in the US, a week in London, and three days in Paris, he visits Silicon Valley and Hollywood.

He meets bishops, rabbis, and former American presidents. He visits the Louvre, and tops it all off with a gala for the who's who of Washington. I think, naturally, as a young crown prince, as someone who is changing the country and is open to the world, who wants to be an ally of the West and is a charismatic person, he was attractive.

Ladies and gentlemen, the man that you would like to hear from, His Royal Highness, Prince Mohammed bin Salman. He owes it all not just to his checkbook, but also to his image, and above all, to his reforms to women's rights, which he hopes will overshadow the arrests of his opponents. I represent the change of this community.

That is, the integration of the man and the woman. Women's issues are important in the West at this particular moment more than any other time in the past. Therefore, these kind of issues drive Western reporting on women in Saudi Arabia.

The ban on driving was highlighted by Western media. Mohammed bin Salman arguably fooled a lot of people. I think people wanted to believe the narrative of Mohammed bin Salman, the idea of a very young, ambitious, and open-minded leader in a place that we don't associate with anything approaching Western democratic values.

He was saying all of the right things and seemed to be moving in that direction. MBS is hoping his economic projects will benefit from it all. For the time being, it's still him signing the checks.

That's 3 billion dollars, 533. Twelve billion on weapons. The price he pays for American protection.

That's peanuts for you, we should have increased it, Eight hundred and eighty million dollars, 645. How could the prince not feel that he has the world at his feet? That he can rule his kingdom as he wishes.

Mohammed bin Salman has this kind of hit team, toughs who are around him. They're his enforcers but also his closest advisers. It's a network that you see Mohammed bin Salman build around him to go out and be the pressure on people who he feels threaten him.

The increasing repression, the number of death row inmates doubled since he came to power, such as these teenagers from the Shiite minority, the abductions of opponents abroad, none of this draws any reaction from his main allies. He has been given a green card. He has been allowed to get away with all sorts of domestic, regional, and international crisis.

Hi everyone, today we have a very important. . .

There is some dissent. He's also maintaining the old ways of a repressive system. He's expanding on that, and he doesn't need it.

There is no opposition to him. I don't understand. Jamal Khashoggi is a former close friend of the Sauds who later became an opponent.

Therefore, he's a renegade in the eyes of MBS, as well as a traitor due to his links to the Muslim Brotherhood and Qatar. For some months, he has been ever more challenging, even writing editorials in the Washington Post. Jamal Khashoggi knew a lot.

He can puncture the narrative of Mohammed bin Salman in Washington. [French spoken audio] The fact that Khashoggi chose to be in Washington, writing critical articles, annoyed Mohammed bin Salman, especially when Mohammed bin Salman was spending millions of dollars on lobby groups and think tanks to improve his image in Washington. Everyone has their price.

Khashoggi is offered a position as an advisor to the crown prince. He refuses. On October 2nd, 2018, MBS's brother assures him that there's no risk in returning to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, where he has to sign his marriage papers.

A team of killers from Riyadh, including MBS's personal bodyguard, puts him to death, and then dismembers his body to get rid of it. In a diplomatic facility in a foreign country, it's so risky and completely out of the ordinary that I think, first, it was very stunning. Second, there was a lot of grief within our newsroom.

There were people here who were his friends, who knew and worked with him. Jamal, God bless his soul, was a journalist, but with very clear political views. In this environment between Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Qatar, we take advantage of their dissidents, they take advantage of ours.

Our security services overreacted to that. It was an incompetent. .

. It was a disaster on all levels. Disasters happen, unfortunately.

The real break in the story came some weeks later when we were the first to report that the CIA, the main intelligence agency in the US, had done their assessment of the situation, drawing on their sources, experts, and knowledge, and determined that this was almost certainly an operation directed by Mohammed bin Salman. The murder stuns the whole world and sparks a global scandal. Any other leader would not come out of it unscathed.

Two weeks later, MBS summons the son of the deceased to the palace, and accompanied by his father, who thus shows his solidarity, offers his condolences. The prince's response to the affair is to announce the indictment of uncontrolled elements. It was an odious crime that cannot be justified.

We know that many people are trying to exploit this painful event in order to turn Saudi Arabia and Turkey against each other. I have a message for those people: they will not succeed as long as there is a king named Salman bin Abdelaziz and as long as there is a crown prince named Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia. I would like to add something.

Prime Minister Hariri is here for two days. Do not believe he's been kidnapped! I have my freedom!

There, on the stage of his annual economic forum, MBS can afford to swagger a bit, because he knows that he has the full protection of Trump's America. To be sure of that, he knows how to get his message across. A text message received from MBS after Jamal's killing and murder said that he was disappointed in the way the West was immediately blaming him, that he would look elsewhere for allies and friends in the East, meaning China and Russia.

-He told you that? -Yes. Clearly, this was also a message that he wasn't just transmitting to me.

He was hoping that I would then transmit it to others, that he was looking at other options. At the G20 summit of world leaders held the following month, MBS follows up on his SMS, quite visibly. The West cannot afford to lose this troublesome ally.

He has another message too. If his reforms fail, it could lead to chaos in an already unstable region. The messages get across.

Any condemnation from his allies is minimal, and his personal responsibility in the Khashoggi case is never officially suggested. I saw it and then heard the accusations later. It certainly shocked me, and it didn't seem like, although on a very limited basis, the individual I had seen.

However, people at state, others, said: "We've gotten the intelligence reports back," "and we sign off on what the Saudis are telling us. " The West is obliged to deal with this prince with two faces, the reformist and the tyrant. Mohammed bin Salman is a reflection of their own weaknesses and of their loss of influence in the world.

One that reveals their own flaws, their cynicism, and their mercantile nature. As for the prince, how long can his high-wire act last? To survive, he has to make it all work.

However, in his own kingdom, the many enemies he has made, princes, opposition, or Islamists, are biding their time. Outside it, as well. In September 2019, his rival Iran strikes at the heart of his wealth, his oil, and all his expensive armaments can't protect it.

In the face of Iran, Saudi Arabia is more alone than ever, increasingly bogged down in Yemen, and unable to push back its greatest regional enemy. There lies the paradox of this young prince. He attracts missiles to his land, as well as pop stars.

He wants to embody modernity, but he's forced to live a cloistered life, like a despot from ancient times. He's worried about his own safety. Someone like him is quite vulnerable to an assassination attempt.

The system that he has around him, including people who taste his food before he eats it, and all the rest of it, cooks, double cooks, triple cooks, and so on, is fairly elaborate. His security is strong. Unless he's assassinated or some act of God intervenes, he is going to succeed.

He'll become the next king, and he will rule for a very long time. On the death of his father, perhaps he will be king and will become, for decades maybe, a familiar figure in our world. Saudi Arabia has made a leap forward these last three years, and it will continue to do so.

I'm convinced that the new Europe is the Middle East. That's the Saudis' fight, and it's my fight too!