The story of the rise of the Saudi crown prince international

In January 2015, 90-year-old King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia died in hospital. His half-brother Salman was about to become king, and Salman's favorite son, Mohammed bin Salman, was preparing for power.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is better known simply by his initials MBS. The 29-year-old prince had big plans for his kingdom, the biggest in the country's history. But he feared that conspirators within the Saudi royal family might eventually turn against him. So one midnight that month, he summoned a senior security official to the palace, determined to win his allegiance.

The official, Saad al-Jabri, was asked to leave his mobile phone on an outside table. So did MBS. The two men are now alone. The prince was so afraid of spies in the palace that he even disconnected the only landline telephone in the room.

According to Jabri, MBS then told him how he would awaken his kingdom from its deep slumber, so that it could take its rightful place on the world stage. He will wean his economy off its dependence on oil by selling a stake in state oil producer Aramco, the world's most profitable company. He would invest billions of dollars in Silicon Valley tech startups including taxi firms, Uber. He will then create 600,000 new jobs by giving Saudi women the freedom to join the workforce.

Surprised, Jabri then asked the prince about the extent of his ambition.

MBS's simple reply was, 'Have you heard of Alexander the Great?'

MBS ended the conversation there. The midnight meeting, scheduled for half an hour, ended three hours later. Jabri's government colleagues were worried after not being found for a long time. Jabri leaves the room after seeing several missed calls on the mobile phone.

Saudi Arabia: The world's most powerful prince

BBC Online has a special report on the extraordinary rise of MBS, whose control of oil affects everyone, how he beat hundreds of rivals to become Prince. For a year the BBC's documentary team spoke to Saudi friends and opponents of MBS, as well as senior Western spies and diplomats. The Saudi government was given the opportunity to respond to the claims made in the BBC film and this article. They chose not to respond.

Saad al-Jabri was so high up in the Saudi security establishment that he was friends with the heads of the CIA and MI-Six. However, the Saudi government has called Jabri an insignificant former government official. But he is the most prominent Saudi dissident who has dared to speak out about how Saudi Arabia's crown prince rules. The detail in the rare interview he gave to the BBC is amazing.

The BBC has shed new light on the events that made MBS infamous by obtaining information from many who knew Yuvraj personally. These events include the assassination of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018 and the start of a devastating war in Yemen.

MBS, 38, is now in charge of the world's largest oil exporter as his father has weakened. He began implementing many of the groundbreaking plans described to Saad al-Jabri – while also being accused of human rights abuses, including suppressing free speech, widespread use of the death penalty, and jailing women's rights activists.

An Inauspicious Journey:

The first king of Saudi Arabia fathered at least 42 sons, including Salman, the father of MBS. Traditionally these boys have been crowned. When both of them died suddenly in 2011 and 2012, Salman was elevated to the line of succession. Western intelligence agencies were tracking and researching who would be the next king of Saudi Arabia. At this stage, MBS was so young and unknown that he was not noticed by the intelligence agencies.

'He grew up in relative obscurity,' says Sir John Sowers, who served as its head of MI-Six until 2014. He is not destined to rise to power.'

MBS first gained notoriety in his teenage years in Riyadh. At that time he was nicknamed 'Abu Rasasa' or 'Father of Bullets'. Allegedly, MBS sent a bullet to a judge after dismissing one of MBS's property cases.

'He had a certain ruthlessness,' says Sir John Sowers. He does not like it when someone underestimates him. But it also means that he has been able to make changes that no other Saudi leader has been able to make.'

Sir John Sowers said MBS stopped Saudi funding of foreign mosques and religious schools. which has become a breeding ground for Islamic jihadism – a huge benefit to Western security.

Saad al-Jabri said MBS was apparently so impatient for his father to become king that in 2014 he suggested killing then-King Abdullah with a poisoned ring obtained from Russia. MBS was instructed by the court not to shake hands with King Abdullah after receiving some hint in this regard. King Abdullah finally died of natural causes in 2015. Salman became king in 2015 and MBS became his defense minister.

War in Yemen:

Two months later the prince led a Gulf coalition in the war against the Houthi movement. The prince saw the Houthis as a proxy for Saudi Arabia's regional rival, Iran. The war has led to a humanitarian catastrophe, leaving millions of Yemenis on the brink of famine. When talking to the Americans about the war, they were against it. Yuvraj became angry at this.

Jabri claimed that the Tsar had forged his father's signature on a royal decree to launch a ground campaign in Yemen.

He said, 'We were surprised that there was a royal decree to allow ground warfare. He forged his father's signature for royal decrees. At that time the king's mental capacity was deteriorating.'

He makes his own rules

MBS bought a famous painting in 2017, which tells us a lot – how he thinks and is not afraid to be outside the religiously conservative society he runs. Above all, he is determined to outdo the West in a show of power.

The painting was bought at Salvator Mundi in 2017 for $450 million, making it the world's most expensive artwork ever sold. This portrait by Leonardo da Vinci depicts Jesus Christ as Lord of Heaven and Earth, Savior of the World. Since the auction, this painting has completely disappeared.

Bernard Heikel, a friend of the prince and professor of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University, said the painting was rumored to be hanging in the prince's palace. It is actually kept in Geneva and MBS wants to keep it in a museum in Saudi Arabia. But it is not built yet.

Saudi Arabia spends unbelievably on world-class sports. The country is the sole bidder to host the FIFA World Cup in 2034 and has invested millions of dollars in staging tournaments for tennis and golf – dubbed 'sportswashing'. But what we got is a leader who cares less about showing the opposite than what the West thinks of him: he will do whatever he wants in the name of making himself and Saudi Arabia great.

Sir John Sowers said, 'MBS is keen to build his own capacity as a leader. The only way he can do this is to build his country's power. That's what drives him.'

Khashoggi's murder

The 2018 assassination of Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul implicates MBS in a way that is hard to refute. A powerful hit squad was traveling to Turkey on diplomatic passports that year and included some of MBS's own bodyguards. Khashoggi's body was never found.

Professor Heikel exchanged WhatsApp messages with MBS shortly after the assassination.

He said, 'I was asking, how could this happen? I think he was a big shock. He didn't realize the backlash would be so strong.'