BEIRUT: Prime Minister Saad Hariri Wednesday congratulated Saudi Arabia’s King Salman for choosing Mohammed bin Salman as his new crown prince. Hariri congratulated the newly appointed crown prince in a telephone conversation, a statement issued by the premier’s office said. Lebanon’s Grand Mufti Abdel-Latif Derian also congratulated King Salman on his “supreme decision to appoint Prince Mohammed Bin Salman Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, which strengthens Saudi Arabia’s role in serving its people, Islam and the Muslims in the world.” He also sent a letter to the Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman, congratulating him and wishing him success in his new role. Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblatt also congratulated Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman on his appointment as crown prince of Saudi Arabia, wishing him success in his new duties and responsibilities.
King Salman on Wednesday appointed his 31-year-old son Mohammed bin Salman as crown prince, placing him first-in-line to the throne and removing the country’s counter-terrorism czar and a figure well-known to Washington from the line of succession. The monarch stripped Prince Mohammed bin Nayef from his title as crown prince and from his powerful position as the country’s interior minister overseeing security. The announcements were made in a series of royal decrees carried on the state-run Saudi Press Agency. Over the weekend, the king had issued a decree restructuring Saudi Arabia’s system for prosecutions that removed Mohammed bin Nayef’s oversight of criminal investigations, and instead ordered that a newly-named Office of Public Prosecution report directly to the monarch.
Mohammed bin Nayef was once a towering figure credited with crushing al-Qaeda’s cells in Saudi Arabia. He worked closely with Washington after the Sept. 11 attacks, helping to share intelligence to thwart more attacks. The prince had previously studied at the FBI and at Scotland Yard’s anti-terrorism institute. Dubbed by Washington insiders as “the prince of counter-terrorism”, Mohammed bin Nayef developed a ground-breaking program that rehabilitates and counsels individuals convicted of terrorism-related crimes. The center bears his name. In 2009, he survived an assassination attempt when a man who’d completed the program approached the prince and blew himself up. The 58-year-old prince had served in a senior security post before taking over as interior minister from his father, the late Prince Nayef, in 2011. Both cracked down hard on rights activists and crushed any signs of dissent. – See more at: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Lebanon-News/2017/Jun-21/410400-lebanon-pm-congratulates-new-saudi-crown-prince.ashx#sthash.qVaqcP1u.dpuf
