The Saudis put on a diplomatic charm offensive in the EU capital this week designed to highlight looming changes in the ultra-conservative Gulf Kingdom.

The man who delivered the message was the foreign minister, Adel al-Jubeir, a member of the younger, Western-educated generation of Saudi Arabian leaders that have taken seats in King Salman's new cabinet.

In his appearances in Brussels, al-Jubeir pushed the kingdom's commitment to diversify away from oil and welcome foreign investment. He courted EU diplomats and extended an olive branch to Russia, even as he expressed the more familiar Saudi disdain for Iran.

Aramco goes private

Any change in Saudi Arabia, he said, will be gradual. But al-Jubeir insisted the kingdom was now more open to business, pointing to opportunities in mining, defense, solar power, tourism and entertainment — the latter two, at least, not what comes to mind when one thinks of the highly traditional Bedouin society that is governed by the puritanical rules of Wahhabi school of Islam.

“Oil may or may not be around in 20 or 30 or 40 years. So what do you do at that point, if you don’t have an economy that is dynamic and self-sustainable and innovative?” al-Jubeir told POLITICO in an interview.

“Iran is on a rampage. It wants to re-establish the Persian empire, as crazy as that sounds because it's been dead for centuries” — Adel al-Jubeir

The Saudi economic plan known as Vision 2030 aims to make the government more transparent and proposes a partial privatization of the state-owned oil company, Saudi Aramco. Money from the initial public offering, expected by 2018, will be used to expand Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund from about €145.1 billion to more than €1,700 billion.

Al-Jubeir dismissed the idea that the economic overhaul has been triggered by the dramatic fall in oil prices from more than $100 per barrel in 2014 to just below $50 now. Yet over the coming months, Saudi Arabia’s priority is to stabilize “erratic” shifts in oil prices, he said, noting that global political turmoil worsens the swings.

The strategic outlook is ominous for the Saudis. The kingdom is enmeshed in a costly war in neighboring Yemen. The regional influence of its Shiite rival Iran is spreading. The five-year-old civil war in Syria spills has spilled across the region, providing fuel for extremist groups such as ISIL and spreading terror associated or inspired by its zeal around the globe.

The 54-year-old chief diplomat, who was educated at America's top universities and spent several years in Germany, allots the blame for all these problems on the regime in Tehran. Iran-backed groups — Hezbollah in Lebanon and Syria, where the militant group has been fighting on the side of President Bashar Assad's forces, Shiite militias in Iraq and Houthi rebels in Yemen — are what's destabilizing the Middle East, he said. Tehran is also inciting rebellion among Shiites in the Sunni-ruled countries of Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, he added.

“Iran is on a rampage,” al-Jubeir said. “It wants to re-establish the Persian empire, as crazy as that sounds because it's been dead for centuries.”

Courting Russia on Syria

Al-Jubeir arrived in Belgium on the eve of the first anniversary of the Iran nuclear deal that had led to a lifting of sanctions against Tehran in January. He met with EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, who was key to negotiating the deal.

His message to the EU: Don't sideline Saudi Arabia from any talks on the future of Syria, where both Tehran and Riyadh support proxy groups in a war that has raged on for five years.

Despite Iranian and Russian support for the regime in Damascus, it would be wrong to think — as some in Europe do — that there is a political future for Assad in Syria, al-Jubeir said.

In terms of Russia, al-Jubeir said Saudi Arabia is willing to engage its fellow giant oil producer. Russia, under EU sanctions for annexing Crimea in 2014, could access the Gulf Cooperation Council market and a pool of investment that exceeds that of China, he said.

“It would be reasonable for Russia to say that’s where our relations will advance our interests, not with Assad,” he said.

“We are ready to give Russia a stake in the Middle East that will make Russia a force stronger than the Soviet Union” — Adel al-Jubeir

While trade between Riyadh and Moscow is “at $10 billion and completely out of sync,” Saudi leaders know that Vladimir Putin is eager to get a foothold again in the Middle East. “We are ready to give Russia a stake in the Middle East that will make Russia a force stronger than the Soviet Union,” al-Jubair said. “We disagree on Syria, not so much on the end game but how to get there.”

Assad’s days are numbered, he said, “So make a deal while you can.”

Reform and rule

Al-Jubair, who previously held the powerful post of ambassador to Washington, speaks American-accented English and fluent German. The younger generation of Saudi leaders like himself appears aware of the need to communicate better with their own people and the outside world.

Vision 2030 was drawn up by Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the influential son of King Salman, who is about 30 and second in line to the throne. Al-Jubeir — only the second foreign minister in history who doesn’t belong to the Saudi royal family — said economic reform should coincide with social change in this nation of 20 million, although he emphasized it will be gradual and slow.

“It will come, I am sure of it,” he said in the interview, including change to Saudi women, who are half of the population and make up 55 percent of college graduates now.

“The social restrictions imposed on women come from the society, not the government,” he said, defending what to outsiders appear glacial changes in a society that is ruled on the basis of strict separation of men and women in public life. “Our focus is to provide opportunity but not to change the social makeup of our society. We can’t force change on people but we have to allow the society to change.”

Saudi perseverance

Al-Jubeir insisted Saudi Arabia has successfully purged its mosques of any preachers who may inspire radicals that had hit around the world and inside the kingdom as well. To a Europe battered by terrorism, he had this to say: “We don’t have imams we send to Europe. If they are in your country teaching hate, stop them from preaching. If they are Saudi, kick them out of your country. But don’t go around blaming others. Deal with it.”

He had another subtle warning for his European counterparts: Despite Iran’s ascent, falling oil prices and intensified campaign of attacks by ISIL militants, the Kingdom's influence — and its resilience — should not be underestimated. It has weathered the regional coups of the 1950s, upheavals of the 1970s and, after a harsh crackdown on dissent at home, the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings around the region.

It will survive this cycle of unrest, he said. “It’s never good to write off [Saudi] Arabia.”

Sara Stefanini contributed reporting.