A number of German observers believe that the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is actively seeking to strengthen his grip on power and fulfill his vision of (2030), but that the Corona virus and the historical collapse of oil prices and the Yemen war threaten to evaporate these dreams in the desert mirage.

The German website "Deutsche Welle" reported that bin Salman dreams of making his country a center of advanced technology in the Middle East, in a way that will transfer it to the post-oil world through the "Vision 2030" he presented to the world in April 2016, but - four years later - he finds the prince The young man himself is in front of something like dreaming.

The site says that the situation has turned upside down. Instead of building a digital economy as planned, Bin Salman found himself in front of a historical imbalance in the public budget after the unprecedented collapse of oil prices amid the spread of the emerging virus pandemic and a number of internal challenges that have to do with the legitimacy of government and the compatibility of the family Ruling.

The factors of the collapse
The site said that the German press has allocated during the past few days a number of analytical reports on the occasion of events in which the Kingdom was a key party, such as the oil price war with Russia, the decline in world oil prices and the collapse of the Riyadh Stock Exchange. In addition to the repercussions of the Corona pandemic and the growing international outrage over the war in Yemen.

Bin Salman ignited the oil price war that caused much pressure on the Saudi economy (Al-Jazeera)

German experts considered that the kingdom's difficult financial conditions, systematic violations of human rights there and congestion within the ruling family made the "Vision 2030" of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman look like a mirage in the desert.

The technology city "Neum" alone would cost at least five hundred billion dollars, part of this money would have come from the initial subscription of the state-owned Aramco, but the current economic crisis has made this "pharaonic project" out of reach.

It is reported that the Kingdom’s budget needs a price of at least $ 85 a barrel of oil in order to achieve its balance, in addition to the fact that Saudi Arabia was forced to suspend the Hajj and Umrah, one of the major sources of the state’s budget. This situation prompted Riyadh to announce that the Kingdom will need to borrow at least $ 58 billion, while the budget deficit is expected to reach $ 112 billion this year.

The arrests isolated him within the family
and the arrest of Muhammad bin Salman for dozens of princes and businessmen, once he assumed power, the site says, his aim was to break any resistance to his ambition to succeed his father to the throne. However, this isolated the crown prince within the royal family.

Deutsche Welle: The war in Yemen has hurt the Kingdom's reputation more than others (Al-Jazeera)

At a time when the Corona epidemic paralyzes the country and exacerbates the budget deficit, Riyadh faces a multifaceted crisis, including crises that it ignited on its own, as is the case about "poker" in oil prices, the dispute with US Presidents Donald Trump and Russian Vladimir Putin, in addition to the war in Yemen and the ongoing conflict with Iran, and worst of all, is internal political repression and an unprecedented struggle for power within the ruling family.

According to the "Vision 2030" agenda, the kingdom was supposed to be in the process of promoting major reforms announced by bin Salman in 2016, but the International Monetary Fund expects a 2.3% contraction in the Saudi economy this year.


His fans are losing , the state has no longer what can be distributed, and the young base in society (60% of Saudis under the age of thirty) who are believed to support the young prince must wait more to fulfill promises of reforms.

On the external level, the young prince pursued an offensive policy against Iran and Qatar, but it was the Yemen war that damaged the Kingdom's reputation more than others.

The "Tag Spiegel" newspaper reported a retreat for the Saudi role at the regional level, saying that, without doubt, bin Salman had long known that this war could not be won by military means, and that interference in Yemen had failed.

But it also confirms that withdrawal like this is simply out of the question for Bin Salman, because that would mean losing his face and leaving (the back garden of Saudi Arabia) open to Iran.