Crown Prince named one of the 100 most influential people

NEW YORK — Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Naif, deputy premier and minister of interior, plays an indispensable role protecting the Kingdom founded by his grandfather. As intelligence chief, he decimated Al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia, penetrating plots, cracking down on funding and promoting deradicalization. That’s why Muhammad Bin Naif has been named among the Time 100 Titans. The magazine calls him one of the 100 most influential people in the world. In 2009 a young militant who had offered to renounce radicalism and turn himself in, was involved in a diabolical act. Instead of seeking pardon, he detonated a suicide bomb and Muhammad Bin Naif seated just inches from him, walked away with only a few small cuts. His survival helped burnish his legendary status as protector of the realm. After the death of his uncle King Abdullah in 2015, Muhammad Bin Naif became the first of his generation to be named Crown Prince. Today he shoulders one of the heaviest burdens in the Middle East: defending his country amid a rising tide of threats from Daesh (so-called IS), Al-Qaeda and a resurgent Iran.