Johnny Diamond
speaker
143 appearances
9 recordings
1 series
first heard Dec 2024
last heard 3 Jul
Johnny Diamond’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
Trend
recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 3 in all, peaking in Jul 2026 with 1.
Appearances
Exactly.
I think Rome and Dublin are the two airports that I know where you are still allowed to have those two litre rules in place as well.
At the moment, they're the only two I do know.
Global News Podcast · The Global Story: Mohammed bin Salman from pariah to peacemaker · 16 Mar 2025
podcast
Here's my colleague, Jonny Diamond.
Twice now in the last few weeks, the Saudi capital of Riyadh has played host to the biggest movers and shakers of the war in Ukraine. Russia, America and, of course, the Ukrainians themselves. Why Riyadh? because of one man's influence, Saudi Arabia's effective ruler, Mohammed bin Salman, known near universally by his initials MBS.
Just a few years ago, he was publicly identified as the man who ordered the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, tortured, killed and dismembered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. As a result, MBS was called a pariah by no less than Joe Biden. But he's also the man who's driven the modernisation and diversification of the desert kingdom.
Now he has made Riyadh a place where the world comes to try and do deals. So how did Mohammed bin Salman go from pariah to peacemaker? With me today is Jonathan Rugman, journalist, author and the producer of the BBC TV series The Kingdom, about the life of the Saudi Crown Prince. It's a pleasure, Jonny. Can we start with the man?
I mean, how much do we know of what Mohammed bin Salman is like as a person?
I just want to clear up this question of his role. He is the crown prince, and yet he is constantly described as the de facto ruler, the effective ruler. This is because, what, his father is now essentially so old that he is no longer running the show and that Mohammed bin Salman has taken on the mantle of ruler.
Let's talk about some of the things that took place. First of all, that conflict with Yemen, how he ended up putting together a coalition to go to war in Yemen against what were then known as the Houthi rebels. This is 2015. First of all, the process by which he got Saudi Arabia into that conflict was fairly curious, wasn't it?
It's not just beyond Saudi's borders that he acted out of kilter with all the normal traditions of Saudi rule.
There was this astonishing event in 2017 with some of the richest of Saudi Arabia's business people and leaders, all, what, invited to the Ritz and then held there? Can you take me through it?
When it comes to silencing people, the one thing that so many people remember, that many listeners will remember as well, will be the silencing of one man, the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was killed in 2018 in what was very clearly stated by a number of different intelligence sources as being on the orders of Mohammed bin Salman. What happened there and why?
So by 2019, 2020, Mohammed bin Salman has consolidated power domestically. But internationally, he's in trouble because of the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi.
But there was this horrible decision, wasn't there, for Joe Biden? What do I do when I meet him? Do I shake his hand, even though I've called him a pariah just a couple of years beforehand? And we ended up with what? We ended up with a fist bump somehow, which looked so strange.
So we've heard about the rapid rise and more tempered fall of Mohammed bin Salman. Next, how has he repositioned himself as host to some of the most important meetings of our times?
You're listening to The Global Story from the BBC World Service. There's a fresh episode available as a podcast each weekday. Just search for The Global Story wherever you get your podcasts. With me is Jonathan Rugman.
We've mentioned Donald Trump a little bit as we've talked, but perhaps what we haven't made clear is how early on Mohammed bin Salman and Donald Trump built a face-to-face relationship because... It was, to re-add, rather bizarrely in many people's eyes, that Donald Trump went first. It was his first international trip, wasn't it, in his first term?
And he built a relationship that has been very strong ever since.
How important in the relationship between Donald Trump and Mohammed bin Salman is Donald Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner? He seems to have been behind the scenes linking the two men, and he seems to be particularly close as well to Mohammed bin Salman.
Showing 81–100 of 143 · page 5 of 8
← Previous
Next →