RIYADH: The Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammad bin Salman remanded morethan 200 figures, including 11 princes and many businessmen, journalists,scholars and bureaucrats, on Nov. 4 in a shock operation. Claims of a coupattempt in Riyadh following the prince’s official visits of the UnitedStates and Europe which was later dismissed as a drone being shot down isallegedly the foundation for a new crackdown prepared by Salman and AbuDhabi Crown Prince and Deputy Supreme Commander of the United Arab Emirates(UAE) Armed Forces Mohammed bin Zayed.
Egypt plays leading role
Former Egyptian interior minister Habib al-Adly is playing a leading rolein the provocations in Saudi Arabia. Al-Adly headed the interrogations andtorture of those remanded in the Nov. 4 palace coup. He was directlyinvolved in the interrogations of Saudi scholars Selman el-Avde, MuhammadSharif, Avad el-Karni and Ali Badahdah, among others. All the scholarsarrested in Saudi Arabia in 2017 and 2018 have been figures who support theSyrian and Egyptian resistance.
Tensions flare
In an exclusive interview with Yeni Safak daily, Saudi Arabian researcherHisham Ali said that four days before the April 21 coup ploy, in whichheavy gunfire was heard near the palace in Riyadh, four officers werekilled in the Jizan region of Saudi Arabia. He added that tensions wererising across the country as opinion leaders and scholars were remanded andmedia outlets were censored. The researcher said that Salman was preparingthe groundwork to remand those who opposed him.
Saudi boosts ties with Israel, Vatican
Ali stated that Salman’s statements on Israel, western visits andinterfaith dialogue with various Catholic authorities show that a series ofne-gotiations were being made.
In early April, Salman said Israelis are entitled to live peacefully ontheir own land, another public sign of an apparent thawing in ties betweenthe two countries.
“There are a lot of interests we share with Israel and if there is peace,there would be a lot of interest between Israel and the Gulf CooperationCouncil countries,” he added.
On Nov. 19, Israel Minister of National Infrastructure, Energy and WaterResources Yuval Steinitz indicated that his country has had “secret”contacts with Saudi Arabia against Iran, which shocked many given the factthat Saudi Arabia and Israel do not have formal diplomatic relations.Additionally, Saudi opened its airspace to Israel in February 2017.
King Salman also met French cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, who heads theVatican’s Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue in Riyadh lastweek Wednesday during the first visit to the kingdom by such a seniorCatholic authority. It followed a series of meetings between senior Saudifigures and representatives of other Christian traditions in recent months.
UAE takes Saudi hostage
Ali said that Salman’s U.S. and European contacts were facilitated entirelyby Zayed. The researcher added that Zayed was after imperial powers, andhad taken Saudi Arabia hostage in the process and was using Salman to playwith Riyadh and drag it into the abyss.