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Saudi Arabia’s ambitious Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is trying to become king before a G20 Summit planned for November in Riyadh, which he intends to use as a stage for his succession, the Middle East Eye reports.
Vast wealth and the promise of dramatic change make for cautious optimism concerning Saudi Arabia, the chief executive…
1867 Views | the publication reaches you by | Saudi Arabia TodayOn Saturday, The Wall Street Journal said Saudi Arabia had detained a fourth prince in a new purge of royal family members over an alleged coup attempt to unseat King Salman and his son.
He was the fourth prince taken into custody after the detention of his father Ahmed bin Abdulaziz, along with former Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef and his half brother Nawaf on Friday.
According to London-based Middle East Online, bin Salman would not wait for his father King Salman to die. Instead, the crown prince would force his father who suffers from dementia to abdicate.
“He wants to be sure while his father is there, he becomes the king,” one source said.
The sources said Prince Ahmed had been asked to back bin Salman’s succession, which he refused.
Ahmed did not plan a coup — an apparent reason given for his arrest — and was apprehended right after entering the palace, where he had been told that an audience with King Salman awaited him. “He did not see the king. It was total betrayal,” one source said.
Back in 2017, bin Salman ordered a purge of dozens of Saudi royal figures, ministers, and businessmen in an “anti-corruption” campaign, which was seen as an attempt to muffle dissent to his potential enthronement.
Sources told the Middle East Online that bin Salman had launched the crackdown because he feared that Donald Trump, who is one of his biggest supporters, might not be elected US president again.
Trump and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have consistently refused to hold the crown prince accountable for the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was dismembered at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018 reportedly under the crown prince’s direct orders.
Trump and Pompeo have blocked calls for a criminal investigation by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation or the United Nations.
Under Trump, Washington has also generously aided the Saudi-led war on Yemen, orchestrated by MBS.
150 take part through Watani Al Emarat via the ‘Your City Needs You’ initiative Over 150 volunteers –…
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The Arab states of the Persian Gulf are the seven Arab states which border the Persian Gulf, namely Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).This excludes the non-Arab state of Iran. All of these nations except Iraq are part of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).
