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News > World

Saudi Crown Prince Purges Royal Family in Dramatic Power Play

  • Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman (FILE).

    Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman (FILE). | Photo: AFP

Published 5 November 2017
Opinion

Critics see Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as a power-hungry figure whose impulsive moves threaten to destabilize the entire Middle East.

In a dizzying development for those watching Saudi Arabia's ongoing palace intrigues, 11 princes, four officials and dozens of former officials have been swept up in a dragnet anti-corruption operation led by heir to the throne Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

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The purge targeted some of the most influential figures in the kingdom's ruling family, including mega-billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal – memorably dubbed the “Dopey Prince” by U.S. President Trump – as well as Bakr bin Laden, the head of the Saudi Binladin Group who is seen as the top power in Jeddah. Other figures in media and business were also detained.

Saudi netizens applauded the arrests on Twitter, with some comparing them to "the night of the long knives," a violent purge of political leaders in Nazi Germany in 1934.

Prince Miteb bin Abdullah was sacked as the head of the National Guard, a pivotal power-base rooted in the kingdom's tribes, solidifying the crown prince's control of security institutions that were previously headed by separate branches of the ruling dynasty.

Miteb, the son of late King Abdullah and the highest-ranking member of that branch of the ruling family, was once considered to be a contender to the throne prior to the meteoric rise of Mohammed bin Salman, who has moved ruthlessly to consolidate power and enact broad changes in the kingdom.

The move came mere hours after 81-year-old King Salman announced the establishment of a new anti-corruption committee headed by the 32-year-old Prince Mohammed, a figure seen by analysts as the real power behind the throne.

"The homeland will not exist unless corruption is uprooted and the corrupt are held accountable," the royal decree said. The new body was given broad powers to investigate cases, issue arrest warrants and travel restrictions, and seize assets.

The round-up recalls the palace coup in June through which he ousted his elder cousin, Mohammed bin Nayef, as heir to the throne and interior minister.

Critics see Mohammed, known by the initials MbS, as a power-hungry and inexperienced figure whose impulsive moves and outsized ambitions threaten to destabilize the entire Middle East.

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“In fact what we are witnessing now in Saudi Arabia is a coup d'état against the Saudi political system and tradition, against also the succession system inside Al Saud family, destroying the hierarchy and the seniority among the royals and a revolution against all the guidelines and instructions of the founding father of that kingdom, King Abdulaziz,” journalist Aly el-Kabbany told Press TV.

The crown prince has also slashed state spending in some areas and plans a big sale of state assets, including floating part of state oil giant Saudi Aramco on international markets.

Prince Mohammed has also led Saudi Arabia into a devastating two-year-old war on Yemen, where the government says it is fighting Iran-aligned militants, and a row with neighboring Qatar, which it accuses of backing terrorists, a charge Doha denies. Detractors of the crown prince say both moves are dangerous adventurism.

The royal decree said the arrests were in response to "exploitation by some of the weak souls who have put their own interests above the public interest, in order to, illicitly, accrue money."

Analysts cast doubt on the allegations, instead seeing the arrests as another pre-emptive measure by the crown prince to remove powerful figures as he exerts control over the world's leading oil exporter and moves to enact broad changes such as a modest reform agenda, financial liberalization and an open alliance with the Israelis.

"The arrests means they go beyond the allegations of corruption, and are designed to further smooth the eventual succession whenever it takes place," said Kristian Ulrichsen, a fellow for the Middle East at Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy. "Mohammed bin Salman is remaking the kingdom in his own image, and signaling a potentially significant move away from the consensual balancing of competing interests that characterized Saudi rule in the past."

The detentions follow a crackdown in September on political opponents of Saudi Arabia's rulers that saw some 30 clerics, intellectuals and activists detained.

In a potentially separate development, deputy governor of Saudi Arabia's southern Asir province Prince Mansour Bin Muqrin and several colleagues were killed in a helicopter crash on Sunday.

Local newspaper Okaz reported the helicopter went down while the officials were taking a tour of an area near the coast in Asir, which borders Yemen.

The reports did not elaborate on the cause of the crash, which came on the heels of an alleged Iranian missile being fired on Riyadh by Houthi fighters.

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