Unlike his cautious predecessors, Salman promptly overturned
the previously agreed order of succession and installed his favourite young son
[about 30 years old] as Minister of Defence and Deputy Crown Prince. He even
dumped the crown prince selected by his deceased brother in favour of the son
of another member of the ‘Sudairy seven’.
To sustain this new order of succession and, indeed,
possibly to enable his own son to become crown prince, new assertive
international policies seemed like a good idea, creating popular support at
home by demonstrating military capability and independence from the US and
other western allies. It would also address increased Saudi concern at what
they saw as US dereliction of duty. For decades, the unwritten agreement was
that Saudi Arabia would say little or nothing about Israel, provided the US
supported its dominance elsewhere in the Arab world. In 2015, not only was the
US failing to support the Islamist Syrian opposition factions favoured by the
Saudis, but it was about to reach agreement with Iran, Saudi Arabia’s main
rival, not to say enemy, in the region.