Saudi Arabia has taken several wrong turns since King Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud took the throne four years ago, but could get back on track if there is an end to the Yemen war — the "signature policy" of Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, columnist and writer Bruce Reidel argues.
In a column in Al-Monitor, Reidel, director of the Intelligence Project at the Brookings Institution and columnist for the media site, wrote the king "has changed the kingdom profoundly."
"It is more repressive than ever, more unpredictable than ever and likely less stable than at any time in a half century," he wrote, adding it is "facing challenges as it tries to diversify its economy, expand the social space, reduce gender discrimination and make a generational change in leadership."
The slaying of critic and journalist Jamal Khashoggi last October "has made all of this much harder and added more uncertainty," Reidel argues.
But it is MBS's Yemen war and repression that have most unsettled the region.
"The war has devastated the Arab world's poorest country and created the world's worst humanitarian catastrophe," he said. "The king needs to end the Yemen war and ease the repression internally to have a chance at surmounting the challenges."
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