Meanwhile, Prince Mohammed was abandoning a traditionally cautious foreign policy and seeking to assert Saudi power –- which led him to intervene in Yemen’s civil war. More than three years of Saudi bombing, directed against rebels said to be backed by Iran, has left thousands of civilians dead.
On the economic front, the prince wanted to ditch a model based on state handouts of oil cash, and build a new private sector. A key driver was Saudi Arabia’s slowdown after the crude-price shock of 2014. The economy contracted 0.9 percent last year, and while the government expects growth of 2.1 percent in 2019, that’s still only about half the average pace between 2000 and 2014.
Prince Mohammed worked hard to court U.S. executives who could potentially help meet his goals. During a visit earlier this year he met Amazon.com Inc. Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos and Microsoft Corp.’s Satya Nadella. But Prince Mohammed had to backtrack on some policies. His efforts to cut salaries and allowance met with signs of public opposition.
‘That Has Consequences’
And opposition to any of his initiatives hasn’t been tolerated, in a climate of fear. An economist who questioned the Aramco sale plan was arrested. So were women activists who’d campaigned for an end to the driving ban. So were dozens of people accused of collaboration with Qatar –- a charge also leveled at Khashoggi, before he disappeared.
“Was it a planned, horrendous killing, or an operation that has gone badly wrong?’’ said James M. Dorsey, a Middle East scholar at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. The Saudi response to the crisis has been “abysmal,’’ he said, as authorities responded first with blanket denials and then with “conspiracy theories.’’
“They have lost any high ground,’’ Dorsey said. “That has consequences for MBS.’’
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.