During the past month, news about domestic Saudi Arabian politics has been dominated by frenzied speculation over an imminent coup within the world’s most opaque and important ruling family: the House of Saud. This rumour was started by a little-known website dedicated to Middle Eastern affairs. It was then quickly picked up by the Guardian and numerous other British newspapers, and a few days ago was given new impetus when splashed by the Independent.
Remarkably, there is only a single source for all of these stories of senior, disgruntled, dagger-wielding royals lurking in the vast palaces of Riyadh and Jeddah: a Saudi prince who is one of the 12 surviving sons of the kingdom’s founder, King Abdulaziz, and who has requested anonymity ‘for security reasons’. His sensational claims are backed up only by a gaggle of overseas-based Saudi activists, who again are quoted ad nauseam.
There has only been one palace coup since Saudi Arabia was founded in 1932, when King Saud was deposed in 1964, so at first glance the prospect of another in the world’s biggest oil producer does appear intriguing.
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