The world is changing with each passing day. With the advancement of new energy and technology, Saudi Arabia’s aura as a major oil country has gradually weakened. Qatar and the UAE are also facing the same dilemma. Oil and natural gas are non-renewable energy sources and will eventually be exploited.
The Saudi king finally appeared recently. At the age of eighty-five years old, he is still unwilling to delegate power, and the crown prince’s succession is far away. Abdullah Aziz Ibn Saud is the founder of the Saudi empire. In the 1930s, he defeated the rule of the Hashim family and crowned himself as the first king of Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia’s throne system is very interesting. It adopts the method of “brothers and brothers and brothers and brothers”. As a typical feudal country, Saudi Arabia strictly followed the lineage system and the seven kings were all sons of the founding monarchs.
The current king is named Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, the 25th son of Ibn Saud. He served as the governor of Riyadh for half a century and was crowned King of Saudi Arabia only five years ago.
Recently, Salman finally showed up after the storm, with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud. The original intention of the elder brother to the throne was to avoid losing power, but now the situation has taken a turn for the worse.
The shortcomings of the succession system are now becoming more and more obvious. The Saudi rulers are getting older and older. The current King Salman is eighty-five years old and has only succeeded to the throne for five years. Naturally, he is unwilling to give up power.
Salman is determined to reform the Saudi royal family and canonize his son Mohammed as the crown prince. At the beginning of this year, Muhammad launched a coup d’etat with an iron fist, carried out a “cleansing” of the royal family and imprisoned three core members of the royal family in the name of anti-corruption.
Now Crown Prince Mohammed holds the post of Prime Minister and Minister of Defense, holding real power and waiting for his succession. The Saudi royal family now has many heirs, and there are more than 5,000 princes, large and small, but relatives in name are indifferent.
The brother of the current king lives in Europe all year round, and his thoughts have also undergone tremendous changes, forming the Saudi reformist. In the name of reform, they challenged the position of Crown Prince Mohammed and were ruthlessly suppressed.
It is against this background that foreign media predict that King Salman will also face “forcing the palace” and take the initiative to abandon the throne to achieve a peaceful transition of power. Now that the King of Saudi Arabia appears safely and takes the crown prince’s court inspection work, it represents the end of this court struggle in a gentle way.
The dust settled in the US election recently, and King Salman and his sons gave Biden a blessing. As we all know, Trump’s Middle East policy has been supported by the Saudi Crown Prince, and now the Saudi side has maintained a neutral attitude.
This palace seizure drama is temporarily over, and Crown Prince Mohammed wants to succeed to the throne still indefinitely. But judging from the consistent style of the crown prince, although he is not the supreme ruler, he has already held real power and emptied his father.
The biggest dilemma for the Saudi royal family now is to fall into the vicious circle of “elderly politics”. If Muhammad succeeds to the throne in the future, it will also inject fresh blood into the Saudi political situation. After all, he is only in his early thirties, which is exactly the prime stage of a man.
On the one hand, the order of succession to the royal family is based on seniority; on the other hand, the founding monarch has more than 5,000 direct descendants. Even if you are a Saudi prince, the possibility of succession is comparable to “winning the lottery.” No wonder many princes have abandoned politics and business.
As far as Saudi Arabia is concerned, in addition to successor candidates, the upgrading of the industry is also imminent. After all, there is less oil mining. The Arab world believes in many children, and the difficulties faced by the Saudi royal family today will also be encountered by the Dubai royal family in the near future.
Muhammad is known for his iron fist. When the Minister of Defense was appointed, he launched an air strike against the Houthi armed groups in Yemen. This move caused a sensation throughout the world, and the talent of the Saudi crown prince was universally recognized, and he was selected as the “Best 80 Queen”.
As the saying goes, it is difficult to change from extravagance to frugality. Saudi Arabia has lived a life rich and rich for nearly a century, and it will face various transformations in the future. Crown Prince Mohammed had a foresight and proposed a plan to rejuvenate Saudi Arabia in an attempt to become the most powerful country in the Middle East.
Although Crown Prince Mohammed has achieved brilliant results, he still wants to succeed to the throne. Perhaps the crown prince will be able to succeed to the throne after a hundred years from the current king.
