Saudi Arabia’s crown prince ‘is stripped of some of his powers by King Salman’ following fallout over Khashoggi murder

• Experts have said there are signs of rift between King Salman and Crown Prince
• Comes amid fall-out from the murder of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi last year
• Report claims king has stripped Mohammed bin Salman of some financial power
• The Crown Prince, 33, ‘did not attend a key cabinet meeting with the king’

Saudi Arabia’s crown prince has been stripped of some of his powers by King Salman, is has been claimed.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has faced claims he may have ordered the hit on journalist Jamal Khashoggi who was butchered by a Saudi hit squad in Istanbul last year. 

The fall-out from the killing has damaged the international reputation of the 33-year–old and there have been rumours of a growing rift between him and his father, King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud.

Middle East observers are also split over whether tensions within the royal court may have been heightened as a result of the country’s role in the brutal Yemen conflict. 

The crown prince has not attended a number of top ministerial meetings in the Kingdom recently and is said to have had some of his financial powers stripped from him, The Guardian says it has been told. 

Saudi Arabia’s crown prince has been stripped of some of his powers by King Salman, is has been claimed. The 33-year-old royal was said to have been absent from a high-profile visit of Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov. The king is pictured shaking Lavrov’s hand earlier this month in Riyadh

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (pictured in February) has faced claims he may have ordered the hit on journalist Jamal Khashoggi who was butchered by a Saudi hit squad in Istanbul last year

It is understood that the king announced the move to senior ministers earlier this month. The 83-year-old is believed to have asked the crown prince to be at the cabinet meeting, but he did not attend.

The king is said to have been unhappy with his heir’s absence and demanded that major financial decisions would need his personal approval for the time being.

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The Guardian said it had also been told that one of the king’s top advisers, Musaed al-Aiban, will ‘informally oversee’ investment decisions on behalf of the ruler. 

Mohammed bin Salman is also said to have been absent from a high-profile visit of Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, and did not attend meetings with the head of the World Health Organisation and ambassadors from China and India.

Embassy officials in Washington have not responded to requests for comment on the state of the crown prince’s authority or his absences from key meetings, the newspaper reported.

Earlier this month, experts pointed to a growing rift between the crown prince and King Salman – with some saying the younger royal, known as MbS, will emerge victorious.  

MbS had become the public face of the Kingdom following his 2015 ascension to heir to his ageing father’s throne.

Father and son:  The fallout from the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi is rumoured to have created a rift between King Salman and his heir, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman

However, recent months have seen a reverse of the King’s voluntary reclusion from public life, and just weeks ago the Crown Prince found himself sidelined at the EU-League of Arab States summit in Sharm el Sheikh in Egypt.

It was the King himself, not MbS, who met with British Prime Minister Theresa May during the summit, and when the father returned, the son was absent from the ceremony welcoming him back to Riyadh.

‘While any movements in the Saudi Royal family are difficult to decipher, there is evidence of a rift,’ James Pothecary, security expert for Healix International told MailOnline earlier this month.

‘Going forward, you will continue to see some political movement to keep a careful eye on, but what is going to be interesting is to see which side the rest of the Royal Family come down on.’ 

Unlike European monarchies, the House of Saud is made up of hundreds of princes, with the power of succession drawn across tribal lines, rather than automatically going to the eldest son.

Each branch of the dynasty is consulted before a new King succeeds, but as the Crown Prince is now the de-facto ruler, an attempt to remove him from the equation would potentially have violent consequences. 

‘When factions in the Royal Family are making calculations on whose side to come down on, they have to be very careful not to choose the wrong side,’ Mr Pothecary says. 

‘King Salman is held in high reverence, but at the same time, he is 83 years old and bin Salman has strong support from the United States.

‘My personal indication is that the King’s age means that in any conflict, bin Salman would take the lead, considering what may happen two or three years down the line.’ 

Dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi was murdered in October, despite Saudi Arabia’s best efforts to argue the contrary, it soon became clear that he had been assassinated by a hit squad which the CIA later reportedly established had been sent by MbS. The Saudi government denies this claim.

World leaders condemned the killing and MbS’s ‘reformation’ efforts – including allowing concerts and letting women drive cars – were damaged by the claims.

Prime Minister Theresa May and King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud attending the EU-League of Arab States Summit in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt in February

According to recent reports, the damage to the nation’s reputation, and the reputation of the Saudi royal family, also angered King Salman. 

In December, King Salman ordered a surprise government reshuffle which involved sacking of one of Bin Salman’s closest aides Adel al-Jubeir, and Turki al-Sheikh, a confidant of MbS, was removed as head of the Sports Authority. 

The king’s interventions in the wake of Khashoggi’s murder reflects growing disquiet among some members of the royal court about MbS’s fitness to govern, a number of sources told Reuters earlier this year. 

MbS has implemented a series of high-profile reforms since his father’s accession, including ending a ban on women driving and opening cinemas in the conservative kingdom. But he has also marginalized senior members of the royal family and consolidated control over Saudi’s security and intelligence agencies. 

In an interview last year, Colonel Brian Lees, once the UK’s defence attaché to Saudi Arabia and Yemen, went as far as to say that the Crown Prince’s days as de facto ruler are ‘numbered’ following his disastrous handling of the Khashoggi murder.

‘The Saudis will never admit that MbS (Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman) was culpable but this does not mean that he is in the clear. I believe that the king will get rid of MbS by replacing him,’ Colonel Lees told Kurdish network Rudaw.

A Saudi source with links to the royal court told Reuters earlier this year that ‘even if he is his favourite son, the king needs to have a comprehensive view for his survival and the survival of the royal family. In the end it will snowball on all of them.’

However, not all experts agree.  

‘The idea of a fight between the King and the Crown Prince is in the imagination of observers who do not understand what is occurring within the kingdom at this time,’ says Dr. Theodore Karasik, a Middle-East/North Africa geopolitics expert and Senior Advisor to Washington-based Gulf State Analytics, told MailOnline.

‘MbS has successfully solidified his position in last few weeks, especially with there being a new head of Saudi Arabian National Guard Forces, plus his outreach in the provinces through various projects in terms of building momentum towards his transition [to the throne].’  

Mr Pothecary adds: ‘I would suggest that whatever conflict is going on, the internal forces supporting cohesion will triumph, and it [the perceived rift] might just be a way to control Bin Salman’s impulses. 

‘There is an overriding priority within the Royal Family to contain any dispute. The survival of the House of Al Saud is the priority, and the family’s ability to contain disagreements between themselves is why they have stayed in power.’

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