Saudi Arabia Crown Prince and the country’s de-facto ruler Mohammed bin Salman is attracting criticism of possibly using the prime ministerial post to get diplomatic immunity abroad, especially in the US. Mohammed bin Salman or MBS as he is often called, was appointed prime minister of the country by a royal decree.
The development took place as US debates whether Prince Mohammed qualifies for immunity from lawsuits in American courts.
The 37-year-old de facto ruler of the world’s biggest crude exporter has been targeted in multiple lawsuits in the US in recent years, notably over the 2018 killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the kingdom’s Istanbul consulate, which temporarily turned him into a pariah in the West.
A judge in the US had already given US lawyers a deadline of October 3 to file a “statement of interest” on the immunity question. But now, the US government has sought 45 more days citing the latest development of Prince Mohammed becoming prime minister of Saudi Arabia.
Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of the NGO Khashoggi founded, Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), told AFP it was a “last-ditch effort to conjure up a new title for him” — in other words, “a title-washing ploy”.
Mohammed bin Salaman is already immesely powerful figure in Saudi Arabia and is a de-facto leader of the country. Before becoming prime minister, he was managing various important portfolios and just another title is not viewed to be of being of any real political significance
Little is expected to change inside the kingdom as a result of his new title, said Umar Karim, an expert on Saudi politics at the University of Birmingham.
“MBS was already completely in control, and there was no threat as such to him that could be countered by him becoming prime minister,” Karim said. He was quoted by AFP.
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