Listen to more stories on audm. M ohammed bin Salman , the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, is 36 years old and has led his country for almost five years. His father, the year-old King Salman, has rarely been seen in public since , and even MBSβas he is universally knownβhas faced the world only a few times since the pandemic began. His last interview with non-Saudi press was more than two years ago. They are thought to have dismembered Khashoggi and disintegrated his corpse. Check out more from this issue and find your next story to read.
MBS had already developed a reputation for ruthlessness. The Khashoggi murder fixed a view of the crown prince as brutish, thin-skinned, and psychopathic. Many in Washington and other Western capitals hope his rise to the throne might still be averted.
I am not a psychiatrist. It is now open to visitors and investment, and lets its citizens partake in ordinary acts of recreation and even certain vices. The crown prince has legalized cinemas and concerts, and invited notably raw hip-hop artists to perform. He has allowed women to drive and to dress as freely as they can in dens of sin like Dubai and Bahrain.
He has curtailed the role of reactionary clergy and all but abolished the religious police. He has explored relations with Israel. He has also created a climate of fear unprecedented in Saudi history. Saudi Arabia has never been a free country. Some fear that if he keeps getting his way, the modernized Saudi Arabia will oppress in ways the old Saudi Arabia never imagined. For about two years, MBS hid from public view, as if hoping the Khashoggi murder would be forgotten.
But the crown prince still wants to convince the world that he is saving his country, not holding it hostageβwhich is why he met twice in recent months with me and the editor in chief of this magazine, Jeffrey Goldberg. In our meetings, the crown prince was charming, warm, informal, and intelligent. But even at its most affable, absolute monarchy cannot escape weirdness. The protocols were multilayered: a succession of PCR tests by nurses from the Royal Clinics; a Gulfstream jet in the middle of the night from Riyadh; a convoy from a deserted airstrip; a surrender of electronic devices; a stopover at a mysterious guesthouse visible in satellite photos but unmarked on Google Maps.
