Saudi crown Prince's new title could prove more significant abroad

DUBAI: Saudi Crown Prince MohammedMohammed bin Salman's new title of prime minister, announced this week, could prove more significant abroad than inside the kingdom where he already has enormous power.

The United States president Joe Biden's administration has until June 1 to decide whether Prince Mohammed qualifies for immunity from lawsuits filed in American courts.

The 37-year-old de facto ruler of the world's biggest crude exporter has been targeted in multiple such lawsuits in recent years, including the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the kingdom's Istanbul consulate in 2018, which turned him into a pariah in the West.

In filings, his lawyers argue that he sits at the apex of Saudi Arabia's government and qualifies for legal immunity.

Human rights activists and government critics speculated this week that making Prince Mohammed prime minister was a bald-faced attempt to weaken the immunity claim and skirt legal exposure.

Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of the non-governmental organisation NGO Khashoggi founded Democracy for the Arab World Now DAWN told AFP that it was a last-ditch effort to conjure up a new title for him - in other words, a title-washing ploy that Saudi officials did not respond to requests for comment about the move.