The Purge : Royal House of Saud

Courtesy of Al-Jazeera

What Happened the Night of November 4, 2017?

• 325 people have been alleged to have siphoned off billions from Saudi Arabia’s state revenues.
• A few hours after the creation of Saudi Arabia’s anti-corruption committee >> 32-year-old Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, rounded up a number of opposition within his own royal family — this list includes but is not limited to:

— 11 prominent Saudi Arabian princes — some examples include:

Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal — Billionaire businessman; MASSIVE shareholder of Apple, Twitter, 21st Century Fox, Citigroup, Uber

Prince Mutaib bin Abdullah — Contender for the crown; Former Head of Saudi Arabian National Guard

Prince Turki bin Abdullah — Former Governor of Riyadh Province

Prince Turki bin Nasser Al Saud — Former Head of the Presidency of Meteorology and Environment

Prince Fahd bin Abdullah bin Mohammed Al Saud — Former Deputy Defense Minister

— Politicians

Khaled al-Tuwaijri — Highest ranking non-prince; former Head of the Royal Court

Adel Fakeih — Former Economy and Planning Minister

Admiral Abdullah bin Sultan bin Mohammed Al-Sultan — Royal Saudi Navy Commander

— Business men

Bakr bin Laden — Half-brother of Osama bin Laden; Chairman of the Saudi Binladin Group

Mohammed Hussein Al Amoudi — Billionaire businessman

— Dead

Prince Mansour bin Muqrin — Former Deputy Governor of the Asir Region; businessman; son of former Crown Prince

>>Muqrin was killed while allegedly attempting to flee the country with his private helicopter when it went down and disappeared from radar on November 5, 2017.

• MBS summoned Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri —

— When Hariri arrived in Riyadh, he promptly resigned his post as Prime Minister in Beirut from Riyadh.

• Riyadh’s private airport was shut down so private planes would not provide an escape.
• Saudi Arabian banks have frozen more than 1,700 domestic accounts as part of the crackdown.
• The Saudi government is targeting cash and assets worth up to $800 billion.
• More than 200 people had been rounded up in the ongoing sweep

— They are being held at the Ritz Carlton in Riyadh.

• The purge has been supported by the:

— Council of Senior Scholars

— Citizens in general — especially the young

Allegations Include:

• Money laundering
• Bribery
• Extorting officials
• Taking advantage of public office for personal gain

Why Did This Happen — 2 THEORIES:

TO CONSOLIDATE POWER>>

• Experts say that the MBS, who is heir to the throne, is jailing potential rivals to cement his own power.
• MBS wants to secure his own position as the architect of Saudi policy for the remainder of his father’s reign.
• MBS’s arrests are seen as a complete consolidation of control to ALL 3 branches of the security forces —

— Making him the most powerful man in Saudi Arabia since his grandfather, the first King, Ibn Saud.

• The final goal?

— To be a fundamental transformation of the Saudi political system — previously based on consensus within the royal family and compromise with the religious establishment — into a more centralized system in which power is more heavily concentrated in the hands of the monarch.

CORRUPTION >>

• Like many petro-states, corruption is rampant in Saudi Arabia —

— Bribes, embezzlement, and lavish kickbacks have long been an integral part of doing business in the world’s richest oil-producing nation.

• Many of those appointed to key positions amassed ASTRONOMICAL wealth —

— In some cases running into $BILLIONS of dollars far beyond their government salaries.

— Much of it stashed away in offshore accounts.

• MBS wants to send a signal that the old way of doing business is no longer acceptable —

— Saudi Arabia needs to reform and modernize if it is to survive as a successful nation in the 21st Century.

• The Saudi government would love to get its hands on some of these offshore private assets —

— Estimated to total as much as $800 billion.

• The country can’t afford this in the long run —

— It has a young, fast-growing population.

— Needs to find meaningful jobs for them and fund projects that will employ them.

Mohammed bin Salman — Good or Bad?

• The most common description of bin Salman in the international press is “reformer”:

— Typically described as a young man looking to bring Saudi Arabia into a new age.

— Public rhetoric focuses almost obsessively on the need to move Saudi Arabia away from its dependence on the oil industry and moderate the religious establishment’s brand of Islam.

• April 2015 >> Was the driving force behind Saudi Arabia’s decision to intervene in neighboring Yemen’s civil war in April 2015

— The intervention has largely been a disaster — thousands dead, millions displaced, and no end to the conflict in sight.

— Yemen has suffered greatly due to a Saudi blockade and airstrikes that have destroyed hospitals, schools, and other civilian infrastructure.

— Roughly 20 million Yemenis need humanitarian assistance to meet basic needs, out of a prewar population of 28 million.

— Yemen is now the largest humanitarian crisis in the world, eclipsing even Syria.

• April 2016 >> MBS stripped the religious police of their right to arrest individuals

— A clear attack on the power of Saudi Arabia’s powerful Islamist religious establishment.

• February 2017 >> The Saudi government launched an ambitious $50 billion investment plan in renewable energy to move away from oil.
• September 2017 >> Lifted its longtime ban on women driving.
• June 2017 >> Convinced his father to dismiss then-Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef and appoint him as his father’s new successor.
• July 2017 >> Led a coalition of Gulf monarchies in cutting off economic and diplomatic relations with Qatar.

— An attempt to force Doha, which had been trying to chart a course independent of Riyadh’s influence, in line with his vision for the region.

• His aggressive approach within the Middle East is popular with the Trump White House —

— President Trump has been openly shifting US policy and rhetoric to align more closely with Saudi Arabia and more strongly against Iran.

— Ties are also warming on the personal level:

>>In late October 2017 — just a few days before the massive unrest — MBS secretly met with senior Trump aide Jared Kushner in one of many meetings between the 2 men.

In Conclusion:

• January 2018 — The purge has ended.

—Saudi Arabia claims to have recouped more than $100bn through its anti-corruption purge.

— Jailed up to 56 high-profile royal family members and businessmen who refused to surrender their wealth in return for freedom.

— This internal event has shaken the establishment of the conservative kingdom, removing protections from powerful figures who had long benefited from systemic corruption that riddled business dealings and all levels of governance for decades.