Editor’s Note: Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is consolidating his power as he prepares to take Saudi Arabia in a new direction. While these changes are significant indeed, he is by no means the liberal he purports to be. Please see Henrik Palmgren’s excellent investigative report for more detail on bin Salman, The Future Investment Initiative, the ambitiously futuristic Neom megacity project, and the emergence of artificial intelligence. – Mundilfury.
A sweeping weekend roundup of more than five dozen princes, ministers and prominent businessmen in Saudi Arabia marks a dramatic escalation in the crown prince’s effort to consolidate power and accelerate far-reaching change in the kingdom.
Saudi officials said the crackdown stemmed from a probe aimed at stamping out corruption. It touched some of the most widely known people in the country, including Prince al-Waleed bin Talal, an international tycoon who is one of the richest men in the world, according to people familiar with the matter.
“This is a crucial turning point,” said Bruce Riedel, a senior scholar at the Brookings Institution and a former Central Intelligence Agency officer. “Saudi royal politics have gone from consensual to an unstable blood sport.”
On Sunday, as the kingdom digested news of the arrests, another Saudi prince was killed in a helicopter crash near the kingdom’s border with war-torn Yemen. It wasn’t immediately clear what caused the crash.
The targeting for arrest of…