Washington/Riyadh: Saudi Arabian authorities detained a brother and a nephew of Saudi King Salman Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud on accusations of treason, according to a person familiar with the matter — the latest in a series of crackdowns on royal relatives by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the heir to the throne.
Former Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, who was previously in line to be king before being sidelined, and Prince Ahmed bin Abdulaziz Al Saud — a brother of the current king — were arrested on Friday, the person said. Mohammed bin Nayef’s brother, Nawaf, was also detained with him during a raid on their desert camp. The news was reported earlier on Friday by the Wall Street Journal.
The Saudi embassy in Washington, D.C. did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The arrests come at a time of increased pressure on Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the 34-year-old de facto ruler. With oil falling the most in a decade on Friday, Saudi Aramco’s stock risks dropping below the initial public offering price on Sunday when trading resumes in Riyadh. The slump followed the breakdown of the OPEC+ alliance after Russia refused Riyadh’s call to slash production to offset the decline in demand from the coronavirus.
The arrests cast a shadow over the kingdom as it plays host to this year’s Group of 20 gatherings, an opportunity that Saudi officials hoped would showcase the kingdom as a business and tourism destination, highlight social changes in a country that banned women from driving until 2018. It hoped to improve its badly tarnished international reputation following the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents and the detention of activists.
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“It’s a bad sign. It means he still feels insecure even after everything he’s done,” said Nabeel Khoury, a former U.S. Department of State official who’s now senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, referring to the crown prince.
“Clearly he has not satisfied the elders, the people around him in the extended family,” he added. “He hasn’t reached a kind of accommodation with them whereby he can sense that they can accept him.”
The royal court told members of the allegiance council, a group of royals that votes on matters of succession, that Prince Ahmed and Prince Mohammed bin Nayef had been plotting a coup, according to the person familiar with the matter.
“The Saudi leadership’s challenges have snowballed in recent days,” said Ayham Kamel, head of Middle East and North Africa at the Eurasia Group consultancy. Recent developments may have made King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed’s branch of the royal family “more sensitive to risks of a coup,” he said.
Saudi Arabia’s ties with the West have been under severe strain in recent years. In 2018, the murder of Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist, at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul sparked international outrage. More recently Amazon.com boss Jeff Bezos alleged that Prince Mohammed personally hacked his phone — a claim vehemently denied by Saudi officials.
Friday’s arrests will shake the kingdom’s hierarchy even further. A full brother of King Salman, Prince Ahmed is one of the only surviving sons of Saudi Arabia’s first king, and was once viewed as a potential candidate for the throne. He’s also a senior member of the allegiance council.
In 2018, he appeared in a rare video speaking to protesters in London, stirring controversy about potential discord in the ranks of the ruling family. He later issued a clarifying statement to dismiss questions about his loyalty. In October 2018, he returned to the kingdom after a period spent abroad.
Since King Salman ascended to the throne in 2015, the current crown prince has embarked on the most sweeping crackdown against other royals in the kingdom’s history, ordering security forces to arrest senior princes and prominent businessmen in what was declared to be a blitz on corruption.
Billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal was detained at the Ritz Carlton Hotel for months, and Prince Miteb, son of the late King Abdullah, was removed from his post as head of the powerful National Guard. While they were later released, many royals — including Prince Turki bin Abdullah, another son of the former king — remain under house arrest or are banned from traveling abroad. Prince Mohammed bin Nayef is his older cousin, the previous heir to the throne and interior minister before being pushed aside in 2017.
The Saudi royal family has tens of thousands of members. While many of them pledge loyalty to the current crown prince, his consolidation of power has marginalized or alienated other relatives. – Bloomberg
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Brilliant news. India should never poke its nose in Saudi affairs. Instead it should help MBS in catching anyone planning to run away by sea route. India should help all these Arab rulers to stay in power. That is where India’s interests lie.