Last month there was a buzz about differences between King Salman and his son MbS. Considering that the king is virtually brain dead, how can one take these rumors seriously?
Political successions are usually messy affairs, more so in the absence of stable institutions. This is what is happening with the Bani Saud. Infighting and bloodshed among clan members is a distinct possibility.
With one-foot in the grave King Salman has made his son Mohammed bin Salman the crown prince and wants to make him king but the loyalty of other princes is not guaranteed.
King Salman’s dismissal of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef and elevation of his own son Mohammed bin Salman to the post while widely expected still came as a surprise.
The Najdi Bedouins paid $400 billion—yes, that is billions with a ‘b’—to the American extortionist as protection money to save their illegitimate hold on power.
The most bizarre part of Donald Trump’s three-day visit to Saudi Arabia was his rambling speech to the Arabian potentates and Muslim heads of State from some 50 countries on May 21.
The fickleness of Arabian potentates was again on display today as the Egyptian dictator Abdel Fatah el Sisi landed in Riyadh. The aged and dementia-afflicted Saudi King Salman received him at the airport as Sisi stepped off the plane. Did Salman recognize the balding man from Cairo?
Poverty and Saudi Arabia may appear a contradiction in terms yet the kingdom’s economy has suffered massive blows because of wrong-headed policies. The kingdom is on the verge of bankruptcy.
3Will the Saudis achieve their political and military objectives by building a bridge across the Red Sea to link-up with Egypt? If the bridge between Saudi Arabia and Bahrain is any guide, it will merely mean more Saudis satiating their carnal desires, this time going West. As far as the Saudis creating an anti-Iran alliance is concerned, which is what the bridge is reality meant for, it will be a non-starter. The Saudis will not survive.
The Najdi Bedouins’ (aka Bani Saud or the House of Saud) hold on power has always been tenuous. It has become even more precarious because of recent developments in the region. Things are not working out as they had hoped for and their ill-conceived and totally destructive policies have constrained their options even further.
There is a common misconception among people that leads them to assume that just because a person holds a certain position of authority or office, that he/she automatically has legitimacy.
The Bani Saud thought they could scare the Ansarullah fighters in Yemen with threats and dropping bombs and after a few days, or at most a couple of weeks, they would beg for mercy and surrender. This has not happened. Instead, the Bani Saud are now stuck in the Yemeni quagmire. They have dropped all their original demands and simply asking that the Ansarullah respect the ceasefire the "Saudis" have proposed starting May 12.
A thousand years ago, the pope diverted the energies of warring princes in Europe against the Muslims in Palestine. In March the Bani Saud launched their aggression against Yemen. Like the Crusaders of old, the Bani Saud will also fail.
Face of the future king of the Bani Saud but for how long? By appointing his own son as Deputy Crown Prince, King Salman has opened the way for his upstart and vicious son Muhammad to become future king. He dismissed Muqrin as Crown Prince as well as deputy prime minister although according to the archaic constitution, it was Muqrin's turn to be king. Was he dismissed because his mother is Yemeni?
Salman ibn Abd al Aziz, wasted little time taking the broom to almost all the appointees of his deceased predecessor Abdullah. In their place, he appointed his own sons and favourite nephews. How long will Bani Saud remain in power is an interesting question.
People in Arabia continue to suffer one family rule. When one old man dies, he is replaced by another old man. The people are denied their basic rights.
The artificial and un-Islamic kingdom of Saudi Arabia has seldom known stability if we discount the reign of terror that is imposed through the sword. With the death of the aged King Abdullah and the line of successors also in very old age, the kingdom faces the prospect of oblivion. Its days appear numbered.
