Mohammed bin Salman, left, will not wait for his father King Salman, right, to die, because his father's presence gives him legitimacy (AFP)
LONDON (Kayhan Intl) -- Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman launched a purge against his chief royal rival, his uncle Prince Ahmed bin Abdelaziz, because he intends to become king before the G20 summit in Riyadh in November, Middle East Eye has revealed.
Bin Salman, known as MBS, will not wait for his father King Salman to die because his father’s presence gives legitimacy to the son, and he wants to use the summit in November as the stage for his accession to the throne, the London-based outlet said.
Instead, MBS will force his father, who suffers from dementia but is in otherwise good health, to abdicate, the sources said.
This will finish the job started when MBS ousted his elder cousin Prince Muhammad bin Nayef from the position of crown prince, the sources said.
"He wants to be sure while his father is there, he becomes the king,” one source said. Over the weekend pictures were released of King Salman greeting ambassadors, to disprove rumors sparked by the purge that the king had died. Sources at the King Faisal Hospital dedicated to the care of members of the royal family also dispelled those rumors.
Before his arrest on Friday, Prince Ahmed, the king’s younger full brother, was given one last chance, after years of public opposition, to come aboard the MBS project, and he refused, the sources said.
"There was pressure on Ahmed to give his full support to MBS. He met with the king, and Salman and others in the court used polite words to encourage him to back his son,” a second source said.
"Ahmed made it clear he would not support this project.
Bin Salman, known as MBS, will not wait for his father King Salman to die because his father’s presence gives legitimacy to the son, and he wants to use the summit in November as the stage for his accession to the throne, the London-based outlet said.
Instead, MBS will force his father, who suffers from dementia but is in otherwise good health, to abdicate, the sources said.
This will finish the job started when MBS ousted his elder cousin Prince Muhammad bin Nayef from the position of crown prince, the sources said.
"He wants to be sure while his father is there, he becomes the king,” one source said. Over the weekend pictures were released of King Salman greeting ambassadors, to disprove rumors sparked by the purge that the king had died. Sources at the King Faisal Hospital dedicated to the care of members of the royal family also dispelled those rumors.
Before his arrest on Friday, Prince Ahmed, the king’s younger full brother, was given one last chance, after years of public opposition, to come aboard the MBS project, and he refused, the sources said.
"There was pressure on Ahmed to give his full support to MBS. He met with the king, and Salman and others in the court used polite words to encourage him to back his son,” a second source said.
"Ahmed made it clear he would not support this project.
He did not give his word. Ahmed told the king he himself was not keen to become king but would look to others to come forward.” Meanwhile, more details emerged about the circumstances of Ahmed’s arrest. According to the sources, Ahmed was not planning a coup before his arrest on Friday morning, as was claimed in one briefing given to Reuters, primarily because the prince had no power to make such a move. "Prince Ahmed would have openly objected to his nephew’s accession, as a member of the Allegiance Council, if the king dies and the question of accession to the throne comes formally before it,” the source said. "He would have clearly said no. But there was no attempted coup.” The Allegiance Council, or Beya, is the body which still nominally has to approve MBS’s accession to the throne. The source said Ahmed had just returned from a falconry hunting trip abroad and had given a reception for his close circle on Thursday night. Ahmed was passed a message that the king wanted to see him on Friday morning. This was about another arrested prince, Faisal bin Abdelrahman, whose case Ahmed had raised with Salman some weeks ago. On Friday morning, Prince Ahmed went to the royal palace with his security detail. He was arrested the moment he entered the king’s compound. "He did not see the king. It was total betrayal,” the source said. According to him, a second member of the Allegiance Council was also arrested in the purge. Asked why this purge was launched now, the sources cited external and internal reasons. They said MBS was becoming concerned about the possibility that Donald Trump would not secure a second term of office as U.S. president. All the presidential candidates remaining in the Democratic race are declared critics of the crown prince and had openly condemned him for allegedly ordering the murder of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul in 2018. Trump and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have consistently refused to hold the crown prince accountable for the murder of Khashoggi and blocked calls for a criminal investigation by the FBI or the UN. In his last interview on the subject published in June last year, Trump said the Khashoggi murder "really didn’t come up” in the discussions he held with MBS. Trump pointed to Saudi spending on US weapons and other goods. "They spend $400bn to $450bn over a period of time, all money, all jobs, buying equipment,” Trump told NBC News. "And by the way, if they don’t do business with us, you know what they do? They’ll do business with the Russians or with the Chinese.” Secondly, the sources claimed that the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, Muhammad bin Zayed, known as MBZ, who has mentored MBS and introduced him to the Trump clan before he became president, was also in on the scheme. Hamed al Mazroui, a well-known blogger with links to MBZ, whose tweets were among the first to break the news of the purge in the Ritz Carlton in November 2017 and the 2017 start to the siege of Qatar by Saudi Arabia and others, tweeted two words in Arabic before the latest arrests were widely known. They translate as "Check mate”. "MbZ is instrumental in each move his protege makes. The more mistakes MBS makes and the greater the instability he causes, the greater the leverage bin Zayed has over the affairs of Saudi,” the source said.
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