Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman

Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, second deputy premier and defense minister, has been voted the most influential politician in the Middle East for the year 2015.

“Prince Mohammed bin Salman and other personalities were chosen based on their influence in their countries and other parts of the region,” online publication Sabq reported on Saturday.

In a poll conducted by Radio Sawa, 2.5 million of around five million voters chose Prince Mohammed.

Observers believe that one reason for Prince Mohammed’s popularity is the Saudi-led coalition’s successful campaign against the Houthi rebels and the supporters of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh in Yemen. They said that the Kingdom was able to form a 10-country coalition to carry out airstrikes against the positions of Houthis and their cohorts.

The Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, was placed second with 27 percent votes in his favor. Oman’s Foreign Minister Yousuf bin Alawi was voted third with 13.47 percent while Bashar Assad got only 0.2 percent votes.

Radio Sawa’s Oct. 30 poll included only 10 Arab personalities with political and military influences in the MENA region.

Radio Sawa, which has over 370 newscasts a week, is a 24X7 Arabic language radio station broadcasting in the Arab world. It started broadcasting on March 23, 2002.

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