The important thing about mistakes is to “learn from them and not repeat them”, Mohammed bin Salman told an interviewer this week. The statement was part of the 34-yearold Saudi crown prince’s campaign to burnish his sullied image and reassure the world that he had reached political maturity.
Timed to coincide with the oneyear anniversary of the savage murder of Jamal Khashoggi, the prominent Saudi columnist, the prince’s high-profile appearance on American television was undoubtedly welcomed by governments and businesses still uneasy about re-engaging with Saudi Arabia. They, and those who have already rehabilitated MBS, as the crown prince is known, would do well to examine whether any lessons have indeed been learnt. They will find ample reason for doubt.
The premeditated murder and dismemberment of the writer at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul was an atrocity, not a mistake. No leader should have to learn on the job that such savagery is not part of governing. Still, it is a relief to know that there will be no more Khashoggi affairs and that MBS accepts accountability for the killing on October 2 last year, even if he continues to deny western intelligence assessments that he ordered it.
Read Also: Oil attacks unquestionably sponsored by Iran, says Saudi defence military spokesman
A year on, however, there is no evidence that Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler has shed his reckless streak. Last week the Financial Times reported that the government was shaking down some of its wealthiest families, coercing them to buy into the initial public offering of state oil group Saudi Aramco to help Riyadh achieve the $2tn valuation the prince is banking on.
This gangster-style behaviour has been a hallmark of Mbs’s tenure. Before Khashoggi there was the Ritz affair, a seizure of assets in the guise of an anti-corruption campaign. Some of the same business people detained at Riyadh’s Ritz hotel in the 2017 sweep, who were made to part with cash and assets, have been targeted for the IPO. Such conduct could well backfire: it undermines the credibility of the IPO and damages Aramco’s reputation as the most professional and wellmanaged company in the kingdom.
Meanwhile, the level of repression in Saudi Arabia shows no sign of easing. Detained women activists who had campaigned for the right to drive are still incarcerated; some are said to have been tortured. Saudi Arabia’s military campaign in Yemen, misguided from the start, has delivered nothing but humanitarian catastrophe. The Iran-backed Houthi rebels who Riyadh sought to crush claimed responsibility for the brazen September attack on Saudi oil facilities that drove up oil prices and shook the markets.
