3 members of Saudi royal family detained
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia has detained three members of the royal family, including a brother of the king and a former crown prince, a sign of how fully Crown Prince Mohammed has consolidated power, and that he may have seen a potential threat to it.
The detentions were disclosed Friday by a member of the royal family and a person close to the royal family, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the danger of speaking out publicly about the crown prince.
A former senior American official also confirmed the detentions.
The most senior royal detained was Prince Ahmed bin Abdulaziz, the younger brother of King Salman, who for a time had been the great hope of family members and other critics who wished to block Crown
Prince Mohammed, 34, from taking the throne.
The former crown prince who was arrested, Mohammed bin Nayef, is also a former interior minister who developed close ties to American intelligence agencies during years of work together. He was ousted from both of those roles by the current crown prince in 2017 and he has effectively been under house arrest since then.
His younger brother, Prince Nawaf bin Nayef, was also detained.
The detentions were not announced by the Saudi government.
The roundup of the three royals comes at a delicate moment for Prince Mohammed, who is the kingdom’s de facto ruler.
His unilateral decision to halt visits to Mecca in response to the coronavirus has stirred grumbling within the kingdom and the broader Muslim world. Conservatives noted that even as he halted pilgrimages, modern entertainment venues he brought into the kingdom, like movie theaters, remained open.
At the same time, his trumpeted plans to modernize the Saudi economy have shown little progress or have fallen behind schedule. His plans to sell shares in the state oil company in a major international stock market were shelved in favor of a domestic offering on the smaller Saudi exchange.