Mohammed bin Salman

Biography

Mohammed bin Salman was born on 31 August 1985, the son of the future King Salman and his third wife, Fahda bint Falah Al Hithlain. He took a law degree at King Saud University, worked for a time in the private sector and as a consultant to a cabinet expert commission, and in December 2009 became special adviser to his father, then governor of Riyadh. When his father rose to crown prince in 2012 he became his chief of court, with ministerial rank.

After Salman became king in January 2015, Mohammed was made defence minister and head of the royal court, and that March he launched the Saudi-led military intervention in Yemen. He was named deputy crown prince in April 2015 and replaced his cousin Muhammad bin Nayef as crown prince in June 2017; in 2022 he succeeded his father as prime minister. He is widely seen as the kingdom's de facto ruler.

His Vision 2030 programme aims to reduce the economy's dependence on oil through investment in tourism, technology, sport and projects such as Neom, and he has curbed the religious police and allowed women to drive, while women's rights activists and other critics have been jailed. Between 2017 and 2019 he led a purge of princes, ministers and businesspeople that was presented as an anti-corruption campaign and greatly strengthened his hold on power. He was involved in the 2017 blockade of Qatar, and a 2021 report by the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence concluded that he had ordered the killing of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018.