Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammad Bin Salman
The Saudi Scholars Association released a statement on Thursday calling for the removal of Mohammad bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud from his position as the crown prince of Saudi Arabia.
In a statement shared on their official Twitter account, the Saudi Scholars Association dubbed the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi as “cruel.”
Turkey says Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist who was critical of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was killed by Saudi agents in Riyadh's diplomatic mission in Istanbul on Oct. 2 and his body dismembered. Saudi Arabia denies the allegation.
ندعوا أهل الحل والعقد إلى وجوب عزل ولي العهد الأمير محمد بن سلمان فقد بان فسقه واتضح أنه ليس بالعدل ولا من أهل الكفاءة .#المجالس الإسلامية#هيئة_علماء_السعودية #جمال_خاشقجي@alqaradawy
@aliqaradaghi pic.twitter.com/A792S2P80Z
“Our country is now dragged into a dangerous dead-end due to the current crises. Prince Salman, who is responsible for these incidents, has arrested many important figures, and sentenced them to prison,” the statement said.
There has been a wave of arrests of academics, writers, and religious figures in the Kingdom since September 2017.
The statement went on to say that Salman had wasted public property and that corruption had increased as a result of his poor administration.
The Saudi Scholars Association stated that a new crown prince should be appointed, and that those arrested should be freed immediately.
U.S. intelligence officials are becoming more convinced that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman played a role in the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, The New York Times reported late Wednesday.“American intelligence officials are increasingly convinced that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia is culpable in the killing of the dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi, an appraisal that poses challenges to a White House intent on maintaining a close relationship with the kingdom,” the newspaper claimed.“Intelligence agencies have not yet been able to collect direct evidence of the prince’s involvement, American and European officials said. They also have not been able to conclude whether Prince Mohammed directly ordered the killing of Mr. Khashoggi, or whether his intention was to have Mr. Khashoggi captured and taken back to Saudi Arabia,” the paper reported, citing one official.Missing Saudi journalist’s fate still uncertainBut “intelligence agencies have growing circumstantial evidence of the prince’s involvement,” the report said, citing American officials. “The prince’s complete control over the security services makes it highly unlikely that an operation would have been undertaken without his knowledge,” it added.On Tuesday, The New York Times reported that some of the suspects identified by Turkey in Khashoggi’s disappearance had ties to the Crown Prince. Khashoggi has long been feared killed after he entered the Saudi Consulate building in Istanbul on Oct. 2 and was never seen leaving.On the same day, 15 other Saudis, including several officials, arrived in Istanbul on two planes and visited the consulate while Khashoggi was still inside, according to Turkish police sources. All of the identified individuals have since left Turkey.US conveys willingness to help Turkey on Khashoggi case'Turkey serious amid US cleanup of journalist case'
US intel ties Saudi Prince to journo’s disappearance
France pulled its finance minister out of a Saudi investment conference on Thursday in response to the unexplained disappearance of a journalist but voiced confidence that relations between the allies would not be hurt.Turkey says Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist who was critical of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was killed by Saudi agents in Riyadh's diplomatic mission in Istanbul on Oct. 2 and his body cut up. Saudi Arabia denies the allegation.Paris and Riyadh enjoy close diplomatic and commercial relations spanning energy, finance and weapons. But France, which considers Riyadh a bulwark against Iranian influence in the Middle East, now faces a delicate balancing act in its response to the incident.President Emmanuel Macron last Friday sought to downplay the importance of relations with Riyadh, saying the kingdom was not a major client of France. But Defence Minister Florence Parly told lawmakers on Wednesday that arms sales to Saudi were crucial for French jobs.German opposition demands end to Saudi arms salesOn Thursday, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire added his name to a growing list of government ministers, prominent business executives and leaders of international institutions who have cancelled their attendance at a high-profile Saudi investment conference due to unease over Khashoggi's disappearance."No, I will not be going. The allegations are serious"." Le Maire told Public Senat TV.Saudi authorities needed to explain what had happened to Khashoggi after he went to the Saudi consulate, the last time he was seen in public, he said.When asked if the move might jeopardise relations between the two countries, Le Maire replied: "Absolutely not."US-Saudi relations in light of Khashoggi caseARMS SALESSaudi Arabia is France's largest market in the Middle East, even without arms sales. French exports to the Gulf nation were totaled almost 4 billion euros ($4.61 billion) between September 2017 to August 2018, according to economy ministry data.That figure does not include deals with French firms worth $12 billion that Saudi state-oil giant Aramco's announced in April, including a $5 billion petrochemicals complex with oil giant Total.French defence ministry data shows that from 2008 to 2017, Saudi Arabia was the second biggest purchaser of French arms, with deals totalling more than 11 billion euros ($12.67 billion). In 2017 alone, licences potentially worth 14.7 billion euros to Saudi were approved. "Our industrial and defence base increasingly needs these weapons' exports," Parly told a Senate hearing on Wednesday. "We can not totally ignore the impact that all this has on our defence industries and our jobs."Dutch pull out of Saudi conference over missing journalistMacron has shied away from publicly criticising Crown Prince Mohammed despite international concerns over a crackdown on dissidents and unease over the high number of civilian casualties from Saudi Arabia's military intervention in Yemen.However, in talks with humanitarian groups in September, Macron said he was sceptical of Prince Mohammed's social reform agenda. Turkey says results 'expected soon' on Khashoggi case
France sends mixed signals over Saudi ties after Khashoggi affair
Middle Eastern news headlines have dramatically shifted over the past couple of weeks from the usual fare of Syria, Iraq and Palestine to diplomatic intrigue and stories of assassins murdering journalists. Saudi dissident and Washington Post columnist, Jamal Khashoggi, is feared dead after he was seen entering the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul, but never left. What followed was a flurry of accusations, denials and shuttle diplomacy to extinguish the fires left in the wake of Khashoggi’s disappearance and alleged murder.- Who is Khashoggi?What is perhaps most incredible to me is the sheer outpour of rage directed at the Saudi state for Khashoggi’s disappearance. The outrage is unsurprising, given news stories have suggested that the Saudi columnist was brutally interrogated by a 15-man hit squad sent by Riyadh before being tortured to death [1] over a period of around seven minutes. According to reports, Khashoggi’s body was subsequently dismembered before being made to disappear.This has led to calls for the protection of journalists from state-backed assassins. The main problem here is that Jamal Khashoggi was not a conventional journalist.Turkey says results 'expected soon' on Khashoggi case Khashoggi has had a deep and well-documented connection with the Saudi state since the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan [2], where he worked with the Kingdom’s intelligence service as Riyadh and Washington both supported the jihad against the USSR. He worked as a journalist and travelled throughout Afghanistan, the Middle East and North Africa, likely reporting what he learnt to intelligence handlers.His relationship with high-ranking Saudi royals is also no secret, as he was an advisor to Prince Turki Al Faisal, who was Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the United States as well as the head of the Kingdom’s intelligence service for 24 years between 1977 and 2001. Far from being a dissident opposed to the Saudi state at a fundamental level, it is important to note that Khashoggi was very much supportive of many of his country’s policies despite his progressive and reformist bent, and had only taken a stand against Riyadh recently, following Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman’s (MBS) rise to power.One of 15 Saudis that targeted Khashoggi dies in suspicious car accident- US-Saudi relations likely to remain stableAlthough Khashoggi was not a U.S. citizen, he was a permanent resident there and worked for one of the most high-profile newspapers in the country. Therefore, his disappearance has raised hackles and not just eyebrows in Saudi Arabia’s closest ally and backer.Indeed, U.S. President Donald Trump threatened “severe punishment” [3] if it turned out that Saudi Arabia had ordered a hit on the columnist. While Trump would not be drawn on exactly what he meant by punishment, he did say that he would not stop selling arms to Saudi, a country that is currently involved in a military intervention in Yemen against the Iran-backed Houthi Shia militants.Trump also took the crisis as a callous opportunity to essentially squeeze Riyadh for more money, making a speech days after Khashoggi’s disappearance saying that, although he liked King Salman bin Abdulaziz, the Saudi monarch “wouldn’t last two weeks” [4] without US support. As such, Trump said it was only fair that Riyadh paid more for American protection, and as soon as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo landed in the Saudi capital, $100 million was delivered to Washington’s coffers [5].Trump: US requested audio, video on missing journalistThe U.S. administration will continue to protect the Saudi monarchy quite simply because Riyadh’s wealth is so vast. Although Senator Lindsey Graham, normally a staunch supporter of Saudi Arabia, has taken the unusual step of calling on MBS to be ousted by his family as he is a “wrecking ball” [6], Trump has defended the Saudi government, saying that they would be considered innocent until proven guilty [7].Arguably, Trump has a point. To date, there has been a media frenzy surrounding the Khashoggi case, and primarily because the antagonist in this story is Saudi Arabia. There is certainly no doubt about it being suspicious that Khashoggi entered the Saudi consulate and never came out. However, no one yet knows what happened to the Saudi columnist, and most of the information comes from anonymous sources. It is important that authorities provide factual material to media agencies rather than what so far amounts to speculative tidbits that serve to enflame an already tense situation.The pressure caused by the media furore apparently has the Saudi authorities now considering admitting to Khashoggi’s death at the hands of “rogue” agents who may have accidentally killed the journalist in a rendition operation gone horribly wrong. Still, with Trump’s support and the friendship of his son-in-law Jared Kushner, it is likely that top Saudi royals will emerge unscathed while the operatives involved will face harsh punishment. The true tragedy, however, will be that we may never know truly what happened to Jamal Khashoggi, and we may never see his case brought to a just conclusion.By Tallha Abdulrazaq, a researcher at the University of Exeter's Strategy and Security Institute and winner of the 2015 Al Jazeera Young Researcher Award. His research focuses on Middle Eastern security and counter-terrorism issues.[1] https://www.middleeasteye.net/...[2] https://www.middleeasteye.net/...[4] https://edition.cnn.com/2018/1...[5] https://www.nytimes.com/2018/1...[6] https://www.cnbc.com/video/201...[7] https://www.nytimes.com/2018/1...
US-Saudi relations in light of Khashoggi case