Secret Getting Saudi Crown Prince to power, Blood and Oil

The crown prince’s dangerous miscalculation in Yemen appears early in Blood and Oil, an engrossing new book about the meteoric rise of Mohammed bin Salman and his ruthless pursuit of money and power.

The authors — Bradley Hope and Justin Scheck, both reporters with The Wall Street Journal — deliver a vivid portrait of treachery and power grabs in the Saudi royal court, and attempt to uncover what drives some of the young royal’s often reckless decision-making. The book narrates the contents of a call between King Salman bin Abdulaziz and US President Donald Trump, who promoted his son to Trump, saying that if you do not like my son, tell him you are fired, which reveals the way Americans deal with Saudi Arabia’s kings and princes so that they consider themselves employees of the US administration.

MBS pulled in expensive Western consultants, paying tens of millions of dollars for a wealth of charts and some good suggestions, including finally allowing women to drive. Justin Chuck, one of the authors of the book “Blood and Oil,” said: “All bin Salman’s acts was to strengthen his role as the leader of the kingdom. He made several changes, but they were superficial. And when we get to the question whether people are able to express their opinion, there are no indications. Thus, Bin Salman suppressed the princes and acted in a way that confirms the absence of political freedoms.”

Bin Salman developed his espionage tools against the princes of the ruling family through his assistant Saud Al-Qahtani, and before him Badr Al-Asaker, who was the hero of the scandal of hacking Twitter accounts of Saudi dissidents and princes. These steps were implemented with the support of Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed, who promoted bin Salman to Washington after Trump’s election. Bin Salman helped him to overthrow bin Nayef, who was incited by Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi the Americans against on more than one occasion.

The book included facts about bin Salman’s private life, especially his rude concerts, one of which was on the island of Vila in the Maldives when he assumed the position of Minister of Defense and cost him fifty million dollars, where dozens of Western models and singers were brought in. The party was canceled after a week after it was revealed.

Source:al-masirah

Y.A