Eli Lake, Columnist

The Promising Crisis in Saudi Arabia

Purging rivals is often a bad sign. But in this case it may show an impatience to reform.

November 8, 2017 at 3:24 PM UTC

Eli Lake is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering national security and foreign policy. He was the senior national security correspondent for the Daily Beast and covered national security and intelligence for the Washington Times, the New York Sun and UPI.

The heir is apparently impatient.
Photographer: Olivier Douliery - Pool/Getty Images

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We've seen this before. A rising leader arrests his political rivals on corruption charges to clear his path to power. Usually this kind of thing doesn't work out well for U.S. interests. See Vladimir Putin or Xi Jinping.

But in Saudi Arabia, there is reason for cautious optimism after the crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, purged many of his rivals over the weekend, including current and former ministers, Saudi royals and other assorted billionaires.