Future Saudi king tightens grip on power with arrests including Prince Alwaleed

FILE PHOTO – Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman attends the Future Investment Initiative conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia October 24, 2017. REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed

 

RIYADH (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia’s future king has tightened his grip on power through an anti-corruption purge by arresting royals, ministers and investors including billionaire Alwaleed bin Talal who is one of the kingdom’s most prominent businessmen.

Prince Alwaleed, a nephew of the king and owner of investment firm Kingdom Holding, invests in firms such as Citigroup and Twitter. He was among 11 princes, four ministers and tens of former ministers detained, three senior officials told Reuters on Sunday.

The purge against the kingdom’s political and business elite also targeted the head of the National Guard, Prince Miteb bin Abdullah, who was detained and replaced as minister of the powerful National Guard by Prince Khaled bin Ayyaf.

The Coming Fracture Of Saudi Arabia

 

The Bible’s book of Galatians, VI teaches, «as you sow, so shall you reap». And for Saudi Arabia, which has overtly and covertly supported rebellions in Libya, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Ethiopia, Philippines, and Lebanon that have led to civil wars and inter-religious strife, the day of reckoning may soon be at hand. The present Saudi king, Salman bin Abdul Aziz, is the last of the sons of the first Saudi king, Abdul Aziz al Saud, who will ever sit on the Saudi throne. After Salman dies, Saudi leadership will pass to a new generation of Saudi royals. But not all the descendants of the first Saudi king are happy about how the future succession may turn out.

Obama Starts Mid-East Nuke Race As Israel Says Gulf States Pursuing Bombs

Back in October, we asked the following: “Did Obama Just Set Off A Global Nuclear Arms Race By Signing The Iran Deal?”

On the surface that seems like an oxymoronic headline. After all, the nuclear accord is supposed to be about curbing nuclear proliferation, not setting off an arms race.

Bloody Alliance (II)

RIYADH/BERLIN (Own report) – With its own anti-Iranian policy, the West had prepared the basis for the aggressive stance Saudi Arabia is currently taking in relationship to Teheran. This becomes clear, when looking at the Middle East policy pursued by the West over the past 13 years. During that period, western countries, including Germany, have been systematically strengthening Saudi Arabia to make it a countervailing power in confrontation with an emerging Iran, a function previously held by Iraq. The West has not only been supporting Riyadh economically but also militarily, including with supplies of repression technology – also from the Federal Republic of Germany – to put down possible domestic unrest. In the meantime, however, Germany’s interests have shifted and Berlin has assisted in reaching the nuclear agreement with Teheran. This will permit German enterprises to have close cooperation with Iran, promising high profits. This is why the German government now seeks to promote a settlement between Iran and Saudi Arabia and to induce Riyadh’s acceptance of a “dialogue.” Determined to continue its anti-Iranian course, Riyadh still rejects talking to Teheran.

Iran’s New Palestinian Terror Group: Al-Sabireen

• The Iranians are also believed to have supplied their new terrorist group in the Gaza Strip with Grad and Fajr missiles that are capable of reaching Tel Aviv.
• The leader of Al-Sabireen, Hisham Salem, is a former commander of Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip. His activities and rhetoric have worried many in Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, who fear that his group is beginning to attract many of their followers.
• Salem has been accused by many Palestinians of helping Iran spread Shia Islam inside the Gaza Strip, where all Muslims belong to the rival Sunni denomination.
• This, of course, is bad news for [Palestinian President Mahmoud] Abbas, who is now watching as many of his former loyalists have come onto Iran’s payroll and are sharing its radical ideology.
• Many Palestinians and Arabs in the region are already voicing concern. The last thing Abbas, Egypt’s President Sisi and Jordan’s King Abdullah need is another Iranian terror group such as Hezbollah in the Middle East.
• It now remains to be seen whether the Obama Administration and other Western powers will wake up and realize that the Iranians are continuing to fool them, not only regarding Tehran’s nuclear program, but also concerning its territorial ambitions in the Middle East.
• Unless the U.S. and Western powers realize that Iran remains a major threat to world peace, Al-Sabireen and other terrorist groups will one day manage to establish a UN-recognized Palestinian state that would pose an existential threat to Israel and destabilize the entire Middle East.

Saudi princes said to call for regime change

Apparently Iran was on to something when it said the Saudi leadership wouldn’t be around in another 20 years from now. Maybe Iran knew beforehand something was going on behind the scenes. Maybe Iran penetrated the Saudi leadership circles and now have influence.

We’ll know more in the future about any possible influence as events unfold, especially if they become pro-Iran.

If Iran ever somehow took control of Saudi Arabia through influential channels, or united with them, they will have succeeded in their long-term ambitions of becoming the Middle East hegemon and new superpower on the world stage. How events have already been unfolding throughout the last decades, it seems already likely, but this would erase all doubt that Iran is the Biblically prophesied King of the South.

 

Genealogical table of the leaders of the Āl Saud. (Image by Slackerlawstudent)

 

Senior member of Saudi royal family calls for coup to replace King Salman as the country’s leader

A Saudi prince has reportedly launched an unprecedented campaign against Saudi King Salman, calling for a coup to replace the monarch, claiming he “led the country to disaster.”

Speaking to the British daily The Guardian, the unnamed prince — one of the hundreds of grandsons of the nation’s founder, Abdulaziz Ibn Saud — said plans were being put into place to replace Salman, who succeeded King Abdullah in January.

New Suez Canal opens: Egypt’s ‘modern wonder’ is unveiled amid promises it will boost trade – and President Sisi’s controversial position

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi rode into the new stretch of the Suez Canal on a wave of nationalist pomp, his personality cult on full display, backed by a roster of Egypt’s international friends.

The French Prime Minister François Hollande was named “guest of honour” at the ceremony in the port town of Ismailia, following the recent sale by the French of three Rafale fighter jets to the Sisi administration. Here he took prime position next to Mr Sisi himself, who had arrived, decked in full military garb, sailing down the new channel alongside a naval ship called Tahya Masr, or Long Live Egypt.

Jordan Moves ‘Thousands’ of Troops to Iraq Border: Jordanian Sources

AMMAN, Jordan — Jordan has deployed “thousands” of troops at its border with Iraq as it ramps up a campaign against ISIS militants who set a pilot ablaze, two Jordanian government officials told NBC News on Tuesday.

…

Jordan’s King Abdullah last week threatened to make ISIS pay for the death of Muath al-Kasasbeh’s after video of the military pilot’s murder emerged. He vowed to wage a “harsh” war against ISIS “because this terrorist organization is not only fighting us, but also fighting Islam and its pure values.

New Saudi king opens door to reconciliation with Hamas, Muslim Brotherhood

Arab diplomatic sources said the Saudi leadership has renewed contact with the Hamas leadership. They said King Salman, who ascended to the throne on Jan. 23, was encouraging a reconciliation with the Palestinian Islamic movement.

“Salman has long worked with Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood and does not want a permanent estrangement,” a source said.

Saudi shakeup: New king purges Abdullah’s sons from key security posts

Saudi King Salman has reshuffled the Cabinet and government in what appeared to be directed against his late brother. On Jan. 29, Salman ordered the dismissal of several sons of the late King Abdullah, who died on Jan. 23.

King Abdullah’s Death Fulfills ‘End-Time Prophecies,’ Say Shiites

See also: Is Iran Setting Itself Up for an Attack? (The Trumpet)

 

Some Shiite Muslims have long believed, based on Islamic prophecies, that Abdullah’s death would set off a chain of events that would destabilize Saudi Arabia and culminate in the rise of Imam Mahdi—the messianic figure of Islamic eschatology.

Though Mahdi is not explicitly mentioned in the Koran, references to him appear in the hadith, a collection of reported teachings by the Prophet Mohammed, assembled after his death.

The most populous group of Shiites—the Twelvers—say the Mahdi is the last of 12 divine imams that are heirs to an Islamic nation. Mahdi is said to have been born in the mid-9th century, but to have then disappeared from humanity. Doctrine says Mahdi will reappear in “the end times.”

The 8 Major Geopolitical Catalysts Of 2015

Uncertainty about the immediate future seems to permeate most societies around the world. Few look far beyond the immediate. But what is now being put in place with the current global upheaval will form the basis of the strategic framework for the coming decades.

Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger was quoted as saying that “if you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there”. Updating this in The Art of Victory, I noted: “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will lead to disaster.” And the hallmark of the world entering 2015 is that there are few governments which actually have defined goals of a comprehensive or “grand strategy” nature. Many governments have short- to medium-term projects and plans, but few, if any, have a contextual view of themselves and have articulated measurable national goals into the mid-term (20 years or so) and longer periods.

Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah Dies at Age 90

MOSCOW, January 23 (Sputnik) — The sixth king of Saudi Arabia Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Saud died at the age of 90, the Saudi Arabian authorities announced on state television Friday.

Saudi Arabia in oil-price war with Iran, Russia

Riyadh avenging Moscow’s backing of nemeses Assad, Iran

WASHINGTON – Saudi Arabia is extending its own international jihad not only through its export of Wahhabism, an extreme form of Sunni Islam.

The Islamic kingdom is now going after Russia, a main backer of the kingdom’s sectarian opponent, Shiite Iran, by targeting its oil production clout to adversely impact the Russian economy.

Sources say the United States might even be colluding with Saudi Arabia to cause a dramatic drop in the international oil price in an effort to punish Russia not only for its support of rebels in Ukraine but for its backing of embattled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as well as Iran.

The Saudi strategy is to flood the international market to harm the economies of Russia and Iran, both of which need the international price to be above $100 a barrel to break even. The price of oil today is less than $50 a barrel.

King Abdullah abdicates

Earlier reports within the last 24 hours have mentioned he was in the hospital due to pneumonia.

 

Is the Saudi king giving up the throne? According the the Egyptian Television network “El-Nha’r, the Saudi king will announce in the next few minutes that he is giving up his crown.