Saudi king names son heir as new generation encircles throne

The prince, known as MBS, already oversees a vast portfolio as defense minister.

Saudi Arabia’s King Salman appointed his 31-year-old son Mohammed bin Salman as crown prince on Wednesday, placing him first-in-line to the throne and laying the groundwork for an entirely new generation of royals to take the reins.

Saudi Arabia’s once powerful counterterrorism czar, Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, was removed from the line of succession — giving the younger prince a firmer hold on the kingdom’s foreign policies, including its close ties with U.S. President Donald Trump, its rivalry with Iran, its more than two-year-long war in Yemen and its punishing moves to isolate Qatar.

The appointment of such a young royal as the immediate heir to the throne essentially sets Saudi policy for decades in the hands of a man seen as a risk taker.

“He could be there for 50 years,” said Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, a research fellow at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University. “If you look at it positively, it is basically setting Saudi Arabia’s course into the 21st century.”

The shuffle stripped Mohammed bin Nayef of his title as crown prince and interior minister, overseeing security. The announcements were made in a series of royal decrees carried on the state-run Saudi Press Agency.

The all-but-certain takeover of the throne by Mohammed bin Salman awards vast powers to a young prince who has taken a hard-line with Iran and who has led a war in Yemen that has killed thousands of civilians. Iran’s state TV has called the appointment a “soft coup in Saudi Arabia.”

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