Name? Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud
Westphalian identity? Saudi Arabia
Age? 41
Why is he in the news? Saudi Arabia’s Prime Minister, Crown Prince and de facto leader Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) has had a rough few weeks. In September, his longtime headache, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, launched an offensive seizing Yemen’s strategic port of Mokha and several islands near the Bab el-Mandeb, blocking Saudi vessels in the Red Sea. On 6 and 12 October, Houthi ballistic missile and drone attacks on three Saudi airports killed at least 20 people and injured more than 370.
Why do we care? In December 2025, MBS became the main player in Yemen after an intensive standoff with the United Arab Emirates forced Emirati troops out, leaving him as the main supporter of Yemen’s internationally recognised government. In response to the Houthi offensive, MBS instructed that government to launch a counter offensive. The airport attacks are the Houthi answer, hitting MBS where it really hurts: at home.
Why should you care? Disrupted oil and gas shipping out of the Middle East is showing up in our everyday lives. Trading giant Trafigura reportedly just paid $76 million to charter a tanker from the US Gulf Coast to China, 10 times the pre-war rate. You, the consumer, will pay for that.
Who else cares? Pakistan’s army chief Asim Munir, who is effectively in control of Pakistan, just sent troops to Saudi Arabia under their mutual defence agreement. Interestingly, in 2015, Pakistan’s parliament voted against sending troops to support the Saudi intervention in Yemen. But when Munir needed to plug a $3bn financial hole in April, MBS came to the rescue with an emergency bailout.
Any further comments? The latest attack was the deadliest in Saudi Arabia since May 2015. That makes it even more troubling for MBS, who has positioned himself as the Kingdom’s security guarantor since his rise to power in 2017.
