Mansour Al-Shahri
JEDDAH — Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Naif, deputy premier and minister of interior, is regarded as the architect of the Kingdom’s successful counter-terrorism strategy and modernizing the Kingdom’s security forces and enhancing its efficiency at par with world-class standard. He can rightly be called as the “Royal Military Commander.” This is because he has won two royal honors for his relentless efforts in combating terrorism, decimating Al-Qaeda in the Kingdom, and foiling several planned terror attacks and plots aimed at undermining the security and stability of Saudi Arabia.
Crown Prince Muhammad has possessed extraordinary caliber and wisdom as well as very good expertise in governance, handling security issues and taking prompt decisions and swift actions. The Kingdom’s security forces have achieved world class standard and professional expertise in confronting any potential threats, especially threats from the scourge of terrorism. He is leading the ministry in modernizing all its sectors and enhancing the efficiency and work performance of the staff, besides supervising the implementation of flawless and comprehensive strategies and plans by applying the highly advanced technologies and devices in combating terror.
The outstanding contributions of Crown Prince Muhammad in this regard have brought him laurels and honors not only from within the Kingdom but also from the region and the world as a whole. The latest of these honors include the naming as one of the “100 most influential people” by Time magazine recently. Earlier, he was honored with several prestigious awards, and these include King Faisal Sash, given by the late King Fahd, and King Abdulaziz Sash of the First Grade, granted by the late King Abdullah.
The credit for successful annihilation of Al-Qaeda in the Kingdom goes mainly to the Crown Prince. This made the terrorists target Prince Muhammad several times. He survived assassination bids at least four times at the hand of terrorists. He was slightly injured in one attempt, and unhurt in the others. The most dangerous attack was on 6 Ramadan 1430 (27 Aug. 2009) when a wanted terrorist exploded a suicide bomb, killing himself but slightly injuring the prince. The terrorist Abdullah Hassan Al-Asiri got permission to enter Prince Muhammad’s office at Jeddah palace after expressing his desire to turn himself in as part of the terrorist rehabilitation program, initiated by him. Asiri used an explosive device or body cavity bomb hidden inside his rectum. A terrorist group planned another failed assassination attempt during his visit to Yemen. None of these attempts had a demoralizing effect on the Crown Prince rather it stiffened his determination to stamp out terrorism.
Crown Prince Muhammad has been instrumental in modernizing the capabilities of the security forces and strengthening the security apparatus so as to enable them to root out terror. He made successful efforts in unifying the command of various security forces and enhancing cooperation and coordination among security forces and agencies with civilian agencies in this regard. He also initiated measures to enact effective rules and regulations in line with the Islamic Shariah so as to enable the judicial authorities to take stringent penal actions against the perpetrators of terrorism and those associated with them. Moreover, strict restrictions were imposed in making, importing, selling, acquiring and using explosives, arms and ammunition.
The Crown Prince has also proved his leadership qualities through improving the capabilities and expertise of the security forces and other concerned personnel in confronting all the potential security threats, including terrorism. As part of this, a large number of security personnel have been sent abroad to receive specialized training besides holding such training programs within the Kingdom. This also followed upgrading the security equipment, installations, and offices with introducing highly advanced technologies.
The Crown Prince is also instrumental in the introduction of a wide variety of services and facilities for the benefit of citizens and expatriates from the Ministry of Interior. These include several online services, especially passport services, and the latest of which is the smart phone application of “Kulluna Amn” (All of us are for security). Under this app, any citizen or expatriate can inform the ministry, via voice message, image or video, about anything related to security, crimes or traffic. There are 39 operation rooms across the Kingdom that will swiftly act to address the information in a fully confidential manner.
