Middle East | Roundup of Saudi Royals Expands With Detention of a 4th Prince
The arrests have raised questions about whether the crown prince was on the verge of taking full power from his father, King Salman.
Then-deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, left, with then-Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef in . Credit … Bandar Al-Jaloud / Saudi Royal Palace
(March 7,
The scope of a new roundup of Saudi royals widened on Saturday with word that a fourth senior prince has been detained under orders from Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, according to two Saudis close to the royal family, in a sign that he is determined to crack down on even whispers of dissent.
The wave of arrests has ensnared a former head of army intelligence, Prince Nayef bin Ahmed, as well as at least Three other senior princes , all detained on Friday. The full extent of the roundup is still not clear.
Crown Prince Mohammed, 75, has already consolidated his power as the de facto ruler of the kingdom in the name of his aging father, King Salman, . But the arrests offered new evidence of how far the crown prince would go to lock down potential opponents within his family, stirring new fear within its ranks, according to several people close to the family.
The most senior family member detained was Prince Ahmed bin Abdulaziz, the father of Prince Nayef and the last surviving full brother of King Salman. The arrests of both father and son stunned the royal family because Prince Ahmed’s closeness to the king had so far appeared to provide him a measure of immunity against the wrath of the crown prince, even when he came down on others.
The detentions also raised questions about whether the crown prince might have feared a plot against him within the family, or that he might be seeking to shut down potential opponents as he prepares to take full power from the aging king.
“ It is surprising he would move on Prince Ahmed with the king’s authority still there, ”said Kristin Smith Diwan, a scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, DC
But two supporters of Crown Prince Mohammed who are close to the royal court insisted on Saturday that he had merely lost patience with members of the family he has long distrusted.
Those two people and a third person who is close to some of the princes who were arrested said the crown prince had heard reports that they were complaining about him in family gatherings and lost patience with them. All the people close to the family or the royal court spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.
There were no signs of an imminent transition of power.
The king was photographed on Thursday meeting with the British foreign secretary. A doctor with ties to the elite Saudi hospital that treats the royal family said it had received no word that the king was ill.
Crown Prince Mohammed was conducting business as usual at meetings around a planned development on the Red Sea, according to a former American government official who tracks Saudi Arabia closely.
There were no hints of an imminent succession, the former official said, adding that the king appeared to have signed off on the orders to arrest his younger brother, Prince Ahmed.
Several people close to the royal court insisted that the crown prince had little fear of a coup against him because he already controls all the levers of power inside the kingdom , including the military, internal security forces and the national guard.
The crown prince has repeatedly cracked down before on the privilege and clout of his own sprawling royal family in order to tighten his own grip on the ki ngdom, and he has established a track record of bold and ruthless moves with little precedent in the kingdom’s modern history.
In , he detained hundreds of wealthy princes and businessmen in a Ritz-Carlton hotel that he repurposed as a prison. He demanded that they turn over large sums of their wealth as part of what he portrayed as a crackdown on corruption.
He also has led a five-year military intervention in Yemen that has created one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters without any sign of victory.
Outside Saudi Arabia, the prince is best known for his association with the killing of Jamal Khashoggi , a dissident and Washington Post columnist, by Saudi agents in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul in
Prince Nayef, whose arrest was the latest to be reported, has held positions in both the interior ministry and the military. A Saudi military website still lists him in his former role as the head of army intelligence, but he does not appear to have any position in the government at the time of his detention.
His father, Prince Ahmed, had appeared for a short time in fall to be a potential rival to the crown prince. But Prince Ahmed swiftly disavowed such ideas. He was greeted warmly by Crown Prince Mohammed on a return that year to the Riyadh airport.
After that, Prince Ahmed continued to come and go as he pleased even while Crown Prince Mohammed placed other relatives believed to be critical of him under travels bans or house arrest.
The new wave of detentions this week came just days after Prince Ahmed had returned from a falcon hunting trip abroad. His son, Prince Nayef, was with him at the time, a person close to the family said Saturday.
Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, a former crown prince and former interior minister who had close ties to American intelligence agencies, was also detained on Friday. He had effectively been under house arrest since being forced out of his previous posts by the current crown prince in .
His younger brother, Prince Nawaf bin Nayef, was also taken by security officers.
“It looks like MBS is just taking out all rivals,” said Michael Stephens, a scholar at the Royal United Services Institute, using the initials for the crown prince.
But justifying his actions to the world, Mr. Stephens added, may be difficult. “The problem is that after the Khashoggi murder, trust in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia is very low,” he said. “No one will believe the official narrative.”
David D. Kirkpatrick reported from London, Ben Hubbard from Beirut, Lebanon, and Eric Schmitt from Washington, DC
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