Bin Salman would do anything for the throne

This week, the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has crossed the last possible red lines in the Kingdom by arresting senior princes who are closest to his father, the King, and sent a clear message that he is ready to do anything for the throne.

Bin Salman waged a seemingly preemptive war by arresting the first-row princes and most of the former rivals remaining on the throne, led by Prince Ahmed bin Abdul Aziz, who won the approval of the West and the interior to take power after the King.

Insiders and diplomats say that regardless of what will happen in the future after the King, challenging the authority of Muhammad bin Salman may be difficult given his tight grip on the internal security structure.

But many princes viewed Prince Ahmed bin Abdulaziz, 77, the only surviving brother to King Salman, as a possible alternative that has the support of family members, the security apparatus, and some Western powers, according to two of the five sources that link it.

And weeks before his arrest, the Reuters news agency reported that the princes in the Kingdom all looked at Prince Ahmed to see what he would do and that the family still believed that he was the only one who could preserve it.

Prince Ahmed did not appear in an attempt to play this role, according to Saudi observers, noting that Prince Ahmed did not play an official role, and he has remained largely out of sight since returning to Riyadh in October 2018 after spending two and a half months abroad.

During the trip, he seemed to criticize the Kingdom’s leadership as he was responding to demonstrators outside his residence in London, chanting the fall of the Saud House.

Prince Ahmed was one of only three people on the Allegiance Council, which includes senior members of the ruling family, to oppose bin Salman becoming the heir in 2017, according to two Saudi sources at the time.

Sources with links to the royal family said that Prince Ahmed’s stance on whether to challenge Prince Muhammad bin Salman is that “we will cross this bridge when we get to it.”

However, bin Salman was unable to control his fears and motives to secure his shaky authority due to his failure internally and externally to push the arrest of Prince Ahmed in his pursuit of salvation from his closest rivals.

Thus, the fate of Prince Ahmed was turned from a potential King to a specific prisoner. At the same time, no official body provides an answer to the question about the reasons for wasting his supposed right to inherit the throne of the country according to the traditional hierarchy in effect for nearly seven decades in the Kingdom.

It is widely believed that Prince Ahmed has a biography overflowing with the merits of his eligibility to rule or to the crown prince as agreed upon by the family by the fact that he is one of the seven Sudaires, that is, the sons of the founding King Abdul Aziz Al Saud from his wife Hessa Al-Sudairi, who were always considered the strongest wing in his dynasty.

However, Prince Ahmed’s path was not smooth compared to his brothers, at least. He remained Deputy Minister of the Interior for thirty-seven years. Then, when he became the Minister of Interior in 2012, it was withdrawn from it after about five months in favor of his nephew, Prince Muhammad bin Nayef.

The most important and perhaps in his distant past is that the late King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz gave his younger brother Muqrin to assume the position of crown prince, which later gave way to the generation of grandchildren of the Abdulaziz Al Saud dynasty.

As Bin Salman quickly tightened his grip on the joints of the state, the wars and conflicts that he ignited in the region, as well as the policies that he pursued with the appalling and controversial two sides, opened the door to Ahmed bin Abdulaziz’s return to the forefront as a possible alternative to Muhammad bin Salman.

Prince Ahmed returned to the Kingdom in October 2018, amid reports that he obtained US and British guarantees that he would not be harmed, while it was noticed that he largely avoided appearing on public occasions since his return to Riyadh.

According to the major newspapers and international agencies, the pretext of preparing Prince Ahmed for a coup as promoted by his detainees is completely out of the question, because all that has been sought in recent times is criticism of the closure of the Two Holy Mosques due to the Coronavirus.

And it may not remain from the possibilities and the case this is whether Prince Ahmed bin Abdul Aziz is only a victim of an early coup that toppled him before the internal and perhaps regional and international circumstances imposed crown him as a savior or loyal King.