Mohammed bin Salman — sourced verbatim quotes 2016-2022 (mosaic of policy statements from major interviews; English)

Speaker: Mohammed bin Salman, then Deputy Crown Prince and later Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia. Mosaic of sourced verbatim quotes assembled from major published interviews 2016-2022. All quotes cross-verified against the Wikiquote-cited primary sources.

[On Saudi modernization — Guardian interview, 24 October 2017]

'We are simply reverting to what we followed — a moderate Islam open to the world and to all religions. 70% of the Saudis are younger than 30, honestly we won't waste 30 years of our life combating extremist thoughts, we will destroy them now and immediately.'

'What happened in the last 30 years is not Saudi Arabia. What happened in the region in the last 30 years is not the Middle East. After the Iranian revolution in 1979, people wanted to copy this model in different countries, one of them is Saudi Arabia. We didn't know how to deal with it. And the problem spread all over the world. Now is the time to get rid of it.'

[On the relationship with Iran — Reuters interview, 7 May 2017]

'We know that we are a main goal for the Iranian regime. We won't wait for the battle to be in Saudi Arabia. Instead, we'll work so that the battle is for them in Iran, not in Saudi Arabia.'

[On governance and decision-making in Saudi Arabia — The Economist interview, 6 January 2016]

'We have our values: it is important to us, the participation in decision making, that is why we have the Council of Ministers, the Shura Council and the Council for Economic and Development Affairs. So we get involved in many decisions to make sure we are doing the right thing for our people.'

'My dream as a young man in Saudi Arabia, is to live in the most successful country in the world, with the highest gross domestic product, the strongest economy, the most beautiful environment, the best entertainment, the best government services… a country in which the Saudi person feels he or she is in the best country in the world.'

[On the Yemen operation, defending the Saudi-led intervention — The Economist interview, 6 January 2016]

'First of all I'm not the architect of the Yemen operation, it is the Royal Decree, signed by His Majesty King Salman, and is supported by all the leadership in Saudi Arabia, by all branches of the family, by all stakeholders, by ministries, by all the Shura Council, by the Ulemas Council and by the entire Saudi citizenry, all of them are behind this operation.'

[On the Saudi judiciary handling of the Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr execution and sectarianism — The Economist interview, 6 January 2016, defending the January 2016 mass execution of 47 prisoners including the prominent Shia cleric]

'The court did not, at all, make any distinction between whether or not a person is Shi'ite or Sunni. They are looking at a crime, they are looking at a procedure, they are looking at standard法. They are not looking at the sect of these people, whether they are Shi'ite or Sunni.'

[On climate and energy policy — Reuters, 16 July 2022]

'Adopting unrealistic policies to reduce emissions by excluding main sources of energy without paying attention to ensuring the gradual nature of the transition will lead in the coming years to unprecedented inflation and an increase in energy prices and rising unemployment.'

[Cultural / historical framing — The Economist interview, 6 January 2016]

'You're from Britain, and I am a fan of Churchill, but I will not be sympathetic to a Churchill… to a Britain that did not exist before Churchill, or a Churchill that did not have a Britain.'