Iran claims Saudi royal shake-up a soft coup as
Iran’s state media has criticised changes to regional rival Saudi Arabia’s royal line of succession, calling them a “soft coup”.
A number of royal decrees proclaimed on Wednesday that Saudi King Salman had elevated his 31-yearold son to become crown prince and second in line to the throne. While the timing was unexpected, the move itself was not: The new Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had been consolidating his power over the past two years at the expense of his cousin Mohammed bin Nayef who formerly had been ahead of him in succession.
The moves sparked critical coverage in Iran, where state television ran a headline calling the move a “soft coup”. The semi-official news agency Fars dubbed it a “political earthquake” and wrote that Nayef had been “ousted”. The website of English-language news agency Press TV ran a lengthy article that denounced Mohammed bin Salman’s hand in policy, including the “bloody military campaign” in Yemen and the “extensive and jarring economic shake-up” currently underway in Saudi Arabia.
The new crown prince was barely known internationally when his father became king in January 2015. However, he was quickly given a wide range of powers as Defence Minister and leader of an economic council — and often in these roles, he pushed moves that placed pressure upon Iran.
Mohammed bin Salman is believed to have been the driving force behind a Saudi-led military campaign against Shia rebels in Yemen that are alleged to be backed by Tehran, as well as a recent move to diplomatically isolate Qatar which led to Iran sending food shipments to the tiny gulf state. The crown prince has also pushed for closer ties to President Donald Trump, who often speaks critically of the threat posed by Iran.
In an interview conducted last month, the Saudi prince had suggested that Iran wanted to wrest control of Islam’s holiest sites away from Riyadh and that there could be