Saudi Arabia’s leaders have historically shunned the spotlight, but over the past several years, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has become one of the most controversial and scrutinized people on the planet. His admirers, including President Donald Trump, see him as a charismatic partner determined to contain Iran and modernize Saudi Arabia’s closed and deeply conservative society. His critics denounce him as an increasingly authoritarian ruler pursuing a reckless foreign policy. And the CIA has concluded that he personally ordered the October 2018 murder in Istanbul of the Saudi dissident and Washington Post columnist...

Source: Wall Street Journal April 12, 2019 15:11 UTC