Already full of twists and turns, the drama of the ascension to supreme power of Mohammed Ben Salman, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia and son of King Salman, is experiencing a new episode. According to several media, including the New york times and the Wall street journal, three prominent members of the royal dynasty were arrested, including the former dolphin Mohammed Ben Nayef and the sovereign's own brother, Ahmed Ben Abdelaziz Al Saoud.
The information was passed on to the two American daily newspapers on Friday March 6 through several converging sources, internal to or near the ruling family, and later confirmed to other media. According to Wall Street Journal, the three princes – prominent figures for two of them, likely to overshadow the Saudi number two – would be accused of treason, a charge punishable by death or at least long years in prison .
This new settlement of accounts within the House of Saud seems intended to facilitate the rise of Mohammed Ben Salman on the throne of Riyadh. By putting out of the way of harming these possible annoyers, "MBS", as it is nicknamed, seems to want to make sure that nothing can prevent his crowning on the death of his father, an octogenarian with fragile health, or if he – suddenly came to abdicate.
Devouring ambition
Mohammed Ben Nayef, known as "MBN", is the most famous of the three neutralized royal dignitaries. A former Saudi counterterrorism chief and former interior minister, praised for his iron fist in the face of the Al-Qaida attacks in the 2000s, he passed for the natural successor of Salman, his uncle, when he he became king in January 2015.
It was counting without the devouring ambition of "MBS" who, with the support of his father, rose through the ranks of power at high speed, before taking the title of crown prince from his cousin in June 2017. Since that date , "MBN" lived more or less under house arrest, with the travel ban. His aura in the royal family and the contacts he had forged in American intelligence circles were probably perceived by Mohammed Ben Salman as a threat. His younger brother, Nawaf Ben Nayef, was also arrested.
Ahmed Ben Abdelaziz Al Saoud, the other high-ranking prince who suffered the coup, is the king’s last living brother. Coming from him from the famous line of Soudaïri, he was an ephemeral Minister of the Interior in 2012. Following comments made in London in September 2018, in which he gave the impression of criticizing the conduct of the war in Yemen , some opponents wanted to see him as an alternative to MBS.
His arrival the following month in Riyadh, after a long stay in the United Kingdom, sometimes perceived as a semi-exile, had sparked much speculation. Especially since this arrival had coincided with the revelation of the assassination of the Saudi journalist and dissident Jamal Khashoggi, by barbouzes close to the crown prince, in the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul.
But anti-MBS circles, who hoped that Prince Ahmed would seize this global scandal to challenge the order of succession, quickly became disillusioned. Of his own free will or under duress, Salman's younger brother has kept a low profile since his return to the kingdom.
The arrest of disloyal VIPs is the hallmark of MBS. In the fall of 2017, under cover of corruption charges, he had sealed off in the suites of the Ritz-Carlton in Riyadh nearly 200 businessmen, ex-ministers and members of the royal family, who constituted, for many 'between them, possible obstacles to his march towards the throne. These dignitaries had been released after several weeks, in exchange for a large part of their assets and their renouncement to play the least important role on the economic and political scene.
