Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman

 Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has been appointed Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia

On Tuesday, Saudi Arabia's King Salman named his powerful son and heir, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, prime minister, a post previously held by the king.

The White House sent three presidential advisers this weekend to meet with the crown prince, who has formally served as defense secretary but has been the country's de facto leader for years. 

King Salman named his then 32-year-old son heir to the throne in 2017.  Bin Salman's younger brother, Prince Khalid bin Salman, who served as deputy defense minister, was named defense minister on Tuesday.

Although Mohammed bin Salman, widely known as MBS, promoted himself as a reform-minded progressive, he made international headlines in 2018 after the murder of a journalist. Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi-born Washington Post columnist who has criticized the kingdom, at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey.

According to news sources in 2018, the CIA concluded that bin Salman ordered Khashoggi's murder. President Joe Biden, who criticized former President Trump's inaction against bin Salman, declassified a secret service report in 2021 that concluded that bin Salman had approved an operation in Istanbul to capture or kill Khashoggi. Although he said he would treat bin Salman as a "pariah", Mr. Biden continued diplomatic relations with bin Salman and met in July.

Bin Salman has denied ordering Khashoggi's murder, though in 2019 he told CBS Evening News anchor and editor-in-chief, Norah O'Donnell, on 60 Minutes that he claimed responsibility.

Since becoming defense minister in 2015, bin Salman has also overseen a bloody war in Yemen, where Saudi-backed forces have been accused of targeting civilians and children and using famine as a weapon. And in 2017, he was charged with seizing and detaining princes, senior military officers, businessmen, and top officials, including a well-known royal billionaire with extensive stakes in Western companies, at the Ritz-Carlton in Riyadh. the so-called anti-corruption probe.

When bin Salman spoke to O'Donnell on "60 Minutes" in 2018, prior to Khashoggi's murder, bin Salman had vehemently promoted his reform initiatives known as Vision 2030, which would allow women to drive, update the country's welfare state, and encourage more private investment — including the Saudi Arabian oil industry. He promised transparency and openness, but Khashoggi was assassinated just four months later.

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