Succession in the Royal House of Saud
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"[The Twitter campaign is a] deflection from the actual story: hostage taking of my brother and sister, unlawful persecution and false allegations.""Omar and Sarah were kidnapped at dawn on 16 March and taken out of their beds by about 50 state security officers who arrived in 20 cars.""We don't even know if they are alive or dead.""[My father Dr.Saad al-Jabri never controlled the ministry fund, he] had the sole and full discretion [over it] with a clear and undisputed mandate from King Abdullah.""They can make up any lies they want about him but he is innocent.""There are signs that Dr. Saad is being targeted with a wide range of threats and the [Canadian] authorities are taking it seriously."
"We were pushed into this. We are patriots, we love our country, we don't want to embarrass Saudi Arabia but kidnapping Omar and Sarah like this, it's daylight thuggery by a state."Khalid al-Jabri, exiled, Canada"Dr al-Jabri transformed Saudi counter-terrorism efforts."
"He changed it from being a crude, violent, confession-based system into one that used modern forensics and computer-based data mining."
"He was the smartest guy we dealt with amongst so many others who were dysfunctional."
Former Western intelligence official
"They have been preparing documents against him [Prince bin Nayef] since March.""[Those behind the Twitter campaign want to] smear his image domestically."Anonymous Saudi source
The current crown prince of Saudi Arabia is an impetuous, imperiously entitled man who has taken the Kingdom in perilous directions since his father named him to succeed him as King. He made the decision for Saudi Arabia to assemble a 'coalition' of Sunni Arab states to become involved in Yemen, to fight the Houthi Shiite rebels linked with the Islamic Republic of Iran, miring Saudi Arabia in an endless cycle of war in the impoverished country. A proxy war between Saudi Arabia and the Iranian Republic where Yemenites suffer and neither side gains advantage.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) orchestrated the assassination at a Saudi mission in Turkey of an irritant critic of his, and garnered the attention of the world when it was revealed that Jamal Khashoggi had entered the Saudi mission to obtain papers to enable his new marriage, with his fiance waiting outside the gates of the mission for her husband-to-be who never re-surfaced. He had been eradicated in the clumsiest manner imaginable; bludgeoned to death, then dismembered by ham-handed Saudis on a mission they were entrusted with by MbS, who later declared innocence.
This is a man who does not take criticism kindly. And who seems to act on the spur of the moment. When Canada's then-minister of foreign affairs tweeted a demand that Saudi women protesting for their overdue human rights be released from prison, MbS ordered all Saudi medical students studying in Canada to return home, while he cancelled trade contracts to punish Canada. Canada reciprocated by fulfilling a contract to provide the Saudis with armoured vehicles for use in Yemen in a spineless reaction.
On the other hand, a high-placed intelligence elite fallen out of favour with MbS who had been an ally of the former crown prince, Mohammed bin Nayef, was given sanctuary along with his son Khalif, in Canada. Prince bin Nayef was arrested and imprisoned, preparing to stand trial on misappropriating billions with the supposed assistance of Dr.Saad al-Jabri, an obvious frame-up in the interests of blackening both their reputations in popular opinion ahead of the trial that will surely find the prince and Dr.al-Jabri guilty as charged.
In an effort to force Dr.al-Jabri to return to Saudi Arabia, ostensibly to stand trial alongside his close friend and mentor, Prince bin Nayef who was arrested in March along with two other senior members of the royal household, Dr.al-Jabri's other two adult children still living in Saudi Arabia were kidnapped and held as 'ransom' until his forced return. No one knows where the two are, and what kind of conditions have been imposed upon them; two 'disappeared' hostages.
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Crown Prince bin Salman is anxious to have his ascendance to the throne made failsafe. He is neurotic about the thought that someone else in the royal family will succeed in ascending to the throne. He is intent on disabling any possibility that someone else could take his father's place but himself. King Salman, 84, is in poor health and has just recently been admitted to a Riyadh hospital suffering from inflammation of the gall bladder. MbS anticipates his father's authority and royal title as King of Saudi Arabia to represent his inheritance and will brook no hint of opposition.
Prince bin Nayef, King Salman's nephew, had been appointed his successor until MbS managed to persuade his father that succession should elevate him, and not bin Nayef. Dr.Jabri, Prince bin Nayef's closest ally and colleague in the kingdom's intelligence sector is now being accused of misspending $11 billion of misappropriated government funds from an interior ministry fund which Prince Nayef administered.
A campaign to delegitimize any possible claim to the throne on the part of the prince has been launched full-out by MbS and driven by his supporters. Thousands of Twitter accounts are using the hashtags "the fugitive Saad al Jabri" and "Saad al Jabri's corruption". One account with over 1.2 million followers read: "Mohammed Bin Nayef allowed the corruption network run by al-Jabri to operate".
A hint of U.S. involvement in the rush to denigrate and bring the two to trial was voiced when aides were said to be "accelerating the campaign" against Prince bin Nayef and Dr.al-Jabri in anticipation of the November presidential election in the United States. Just in case someone other than President Donald Trump wins the presidency and the man who is president who has publicly supported MbS is no longer available to do so.
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| 'A fully-fledged palace coup is unlikely. No other prince can mobilise enough troops to depose a man with the coercive powers of the state at his disposal.’ Photograph: Reuters |
Labels: King Salman, Mohammad bin Salman, Saudi Arabia, Succession
posted by Pieface @ Wednesday, July 22, 2020
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