Muhammad bin Salman and the overwhelming feeling of surplus power and authority

Observers agreed that the Crown Prince Mohammed Salman’s arrest of the Kingdom’s top princes shows that he has begun disposing of potential rivals as he seeks to consolidate his powers and resolve the throne conflict in his favor.

Observers highlight that the arrests taking place are consistent with Bin Salman’s authoritarian style since he became an effective ruler in 2017. He seized most of the country’s daily administrative tasks from his father and embarked on a comprehensive cleansing operation targeting his rivals, critics, and activists.

Bin Salman appears with an overwhelming feeling of excess power in a closed system that requires complete obedience to the subjects, so he does what he wants.

In this regard, the Associated Press’ report highlights that Bin Salman wanted to imprison his uncle Ahmed bin Abdul Aziz, 78, who is described as a reliable royal family prince.

This is done, and the scarce news that suggested that Prince Ahmed spoke to some of his councilors, complaining about something that did not happen in the administration of his nephew, and did not satisfy him by stopping the circumambulation and praying in the Great Mosque of Mecca.

It is sufficient that the uncle came to such a thing, after some time abstaining from the pledge of allegiance of Muhammad bin Salman, 35, as crown prince, when Muhammad bin Nayef was removed from the position three years ago and exiled, and it is sufficient that the latter does not come from the councils to satisfy his the first thorn in the Kingdom, it suffices that the loyalty of brothers and children to this and that and others is lacking.

It is clear that those who direct the extreme official media in the vicinity of Muhammad bin Salman wanted a lot of talk to be prolonged, increased and repeated in gossip about what happened, and that someone who wanted to chatter in the matter will chatter for some time, even if some misdirected to talk about the death of the king or his death, before they were surprised, received two ambassadors.

All of this shows that the Kingdom is not in a state that pleases the mind, and it is not a secret, nor a reading in the cup, that a slight amount of turmoil takes place in the ruling family in this country of great importance and sensitivity, and there is nothing wrong with its appreciation of unprecedented turmoil.

The recent events in the Kingdom bring back to mind previous episodes of the series of the Struggle on the Saudi Throne, when Bin Salman managed to remove his cousin, Prince Muhammad bin Nayef, from the reign of Al-Ahed three years ago.

The recent arrests, and if they took a more daring turn, are also reminiscent of the scene of the arrest of Saudi princes the first time in the Ritz-Carlton hotel more than three years ago, on charges of corruption and profit.

Observers explain what happened as a measure by the current crown prince to eliminate two men who represent a threat to his assumption of the highest position in the country, succeeding his father. The first is Prince Muhammad bin Nayef, who has influence and broad mediator internally and externally, and he was the favorite to win the post.

The second is Prince Ahmed, the brother of the king, whose name has been circulated by the media as an acceptable candidate among the royal family to inherit the Saudi Throne, and from what had previously appeared to be a criticism of the Kingdom’s current policy.

The recent arrests are also breaking more norms of the royal family. It affected the last surviving son of the Kingdom’s founder, Prince Ahmed bin Abdul Aziz, and it may be the opening of another episode in the series re-arranging the Saudi Throne.

In this series, bin Salman wants his father to stay alive for some time until he gets rid of all the opposition from the ruling family such as Ahmed bin Abdul Aziz, Muhammad bin Nayef, and others.

As sources at the royal court say that recently Prince Ahmed bin Abdulaziz was summoned to the royal court to sign a document accepting Muhammad bin Salman as king, so he refused, despite all the temptations that were presented to him.

Therefore, bin Salman realized that Prince Ahmed would stand in the way of his accession to power. At the same time, King Salman remains absent from the scene and has no real role in all important events, especially with the frequent reports of a severe deterioration in his health and mental capabilities.

On the other hand, bin Salman proved that the men of the ruling family are all cowards and reluctant and with a high degree of fear and that they are not from the people of Al-Qadam. After the arrest of Prince Ahmed bin Abdul Aziz, the princes and the ruling family begin to feel a sense of danger and that if they do not move, their fate will be in prisons.

In conclusion, the developments taking place in the blessed family clearly show the severity of the rift within the ruling nucleus, in light of Muhammad bin Salman’s attempt to remove all influential faces in a forced change of the type of old rule that the Kingdom has known.

As bin Salman established by force and mercenaries from foreign powers established his authority based on emotional and exclusion and that he does not accept a partner, but at the same time consecrates the symptoms of aging in the Kingdom through a crack in the nucleus of rule.