Saudi Arabia arrests at least 3 members of royal family

Saudi Arabia has arrested at least three members of the royal family members in a new crackdown that appears to be part of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s efforts to further shore up his control over the oil-rich kingdom.

Those detained include Prince Ahmed bin Abdulaziz, a 77-year-old brother of King Salman, and considered by analysts and diplomats as a potential obstacle to Prince’s Mohammed’s succession, two people briefed on the matter said.

Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, the former crown prince and interior minister, has also been detained. He is believed to have been under house arrest since being replaced as crown prince by Prince Mohammed, who is known as MBS, in 2017.

Other senior officials and officers have also been caught in purge, which has triggered fevered speculation about the king’s health, one of the people added.

“Are these arrests or temporary confinement, that isn’t clear,” he said.

The arrests, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, were denied by a Saudi diplomat. The government did not respond to a request for comment.

Prince Mohammed, the kingdom’s de facto leader, has launched far-reaching social and economic reforms while projecting Saudi power across the region. But his drive to modernise the conservative kingdom has been accompanied by waves of crackdowns that have targeted members of the royal family, businessmen, academics, activists, bloggers and journalists as he has consolidated his power over all branches of the state.

He has displayed a zero-tolerance towards criticism and the world’s top oil exporter was plunged into its biggest diplomatic crisis in years after Saudi agents killed Jamal Khashoggi at the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul in October 2018.

Riyadh blamed the veteran journalist’s brutal murder on a rogue operation, and Prince Mohammed’s supporters and Riyadh’s western allies hoped the 34-year-old leader would heed lessons from the chastening experience. He has avoided controversy since then as Saudi Arabia prepares to host the G20 group of nations meeting this year.

But the arrests of the royals will cast further scrutiny on his autocratic leadership. It will also raise speculation that he is laying the groundwork for the eventual succession to King Salman, his 84-year-old father.

Prince Ahmed, who has previously been critical of some Saudi policies, returned to the kingdom in 2018 after receiving assurances of his safety as the royal family closed ranks in the aftermath of Khashoggi’s murder.

Prince Mohammed, whose rapid rise to heir apparent three years ago shook up the traditional succession process in an unprecedented manner, has pushed through a series of contentious policies.

Months after he became crown prince, he launched an extraordinary anti-corruption crackdown that saw more than 300 princes and businessmen detained at Ritz-Carlton hotel in Riyadh. Most have been released, but many were freed only after they agreed to transfer cash and assets to the state. The government claimed it netted more than $100bn in the purge, but the crackdown was also seen as an early sign of Prince Mohammed drive to cement his power and that nobody was untouchable.

In 2018, female activists were arrested just weeks before Riyadh lifted a ban on women driving in a move that highlighted the contradictions of his attempts to push for social reform while seeking to crush any perceived dissent.

The kingdom has also been criticised for its role in the five-year war in Yemen, where a Saudi-led coalition has been accused of killing thousands of civilians in air strikes that have struck homes, hospitals, weddings and funerals.

The latest arrests come as the kingdom also faces mounting economic challenges at a time when Riyadh is keen to show the fruits of Prince Mohammed’s highly ambitious economic reform programme.

Oil prices, Saudi Arabia’s economic lifeline, have plunged about 30 per cent since January as the coronavirus outbreak has spread across the globe.

FT