▻https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-son-who-would-be-the-saudis-king/2015/09/08/06e94328-566c-11e5-8bb1-b488d231bba2_story.html
Mohammed bin Salman’s most intriguing move on Syria was a meeting in Riyadh in late July with Ali Mamlouk, the top intelligence adviser to President Bashar al-Assad. At that meeting, apparently brokered by Russia, the young Saudi defense minister “floated the idea that Assad could stay in power if Iran would go,” according to an administration official. Any such offer to allow Assad’s survival in power would mark a sharp change in official Saudi policy, and a sign of the price Riyadh would pay to reduce Iranian influence in Damascus.