UAE website questions appointment of Saudi’s Bin Nayef as deputy crown prince

The Emirati website Erem News has questioned the appointment of Prince Mohammad Bin Nayef Bin Abdulaziz, the minister of interior, as deputy crown prince. This was the post created by the late King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz in a move considered to be the first of its kind since the establishment of the Saudi state. Upon its creation, the youngest of King Abdulaziz’s sons Prince Miqrin was appointed to the post.

The website, which is supported by the UAE and endeavours to promote the policies adopted by Abu Dhabi, noted that “the new Saudi monarch King Salman Bin Abdulaziz failed to consult the Allegiance Commission when he issued a royal decree appointing his nephew Prince Mohammad Bin Nayef as deputy crown prince.” This is an explicit questioning of the royal decree and of the appointment of Prince Mohammad who is described by the website as the occupier of the third most powerful position in the royal Saudi pyramid of power and the first grandson of the founding king to get close to sitting on the Kingdom’s throne.

Erem News said: “The mechanism of choosing Mohammad Bin Nayef from among several prominent grandsons has attracted the attention of observers.” The website described the measure as “obscure”.

Questioning the appointment, the website added: “It is not possible to determine the mechanism by which King Salman appointed his nephew Prince Mohammad Bin Nayef to the position of deputy crown prince. The person appointed to this position should be chosen by the Allegiance Commission which is responsible for making such an appointment according to its own statute.”

It went on to say: “It is unlikely that the appointment of Prince Mohammad Bin Nayef to the position of deputy crown prince was made with the consent of the Allegiance Commission.”

The website said it was unlikely that “a meeting was convened for the members of the Allegiance Commission just hours after the death of King Abdullah”. It said that convening such a meeting would have been very difficult indeed and that it would have been impossible for a representative of the late King Abdullah to be present since his sons would have been preoccupied, especially his son Prince Mutaib, with their father’s funeral preparations and in receiving mourners.

The site sheds light on the position of the UAE rulers who implicitly support Prince Mutaib Bin Abdullah.

The website didn’t mentioned that the appointment of Mohammad Bin Nayef foiled the plot hatched jointly by Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Mohammad Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, Mutaib and Al-Tuwaijri with the aim of expediting the appointment of Mutaib and bringing him into the pyramid of power. This was something Mutaib and his ally Mohammad Bin Zayed desperately sought with the help of plans drawn up by Khalid Al-Tuwaijri, head of the Royal Court, who was the main decision maker within the court and who barred even the brothers of the late Saudi monarch from visiting him while he was ill.

It is not unknown to observers that a struggle took place over the position of “deputy crown prince” between Mutaib Bin Abdullah, minister of the National Guard – a portfolio created especially for him to become a minister, and Mohammad Bin Nayef and that both Mutaib and Mohammad Bin Nayef resorted to Washington for endorsement where they met with Obama and senior officials there. It is also known that after Prince Ahmad Bin Abdulaziz was excluded from the leadership trio with the appointment of Miqrin instead of him, it became apparent that entry into the power triangle once the king was dead was going to pass on to the generation of King Abdulaziz’s grandsons. This is an eventuality the west has been pushing for and pressing the Saudi leadership to do.

Once the position was restricted to these two, Mutaib and Nayef, in case Abdullah died first it was expected that the position would go to Mohammad Bin Nayef but in case Salman died first it was expected that the position would go to Mutaib.

As for the claim that the new Saudi monarch did not obtain the consent of the Allegiance Commission, it is now evident that Salman had in fact obtained the consent of the Allegiance Commission members. The commission has 35 members and a meeting can be held if the majority of them attend. A decision is then taken with the consent of 75 per cent of the Allegiance Commission’s members. The promptness of the appointment of the “deputy crown prince” was necessitated by the circumstances of achieving the allegiance on Friday evening, the day the king passed away as stated in the Royal Decree in which the new monarch announced the death of the late king. It is not clear yet whether the decision of the Allegiance Commission was made during the meeting or through communications and consultations conducted with the individual members of the commission.

Erem News cast doubt on the radical decisions made by the new monarch, King Salman, and said that “they involved very sensitive positions, especially with regards to the appointment of his own son Mohammad Bin Salman in the position of defence minister and the appointment of Prince Mohammad Bin Nayef in the position of deputy crown prince.” The website also said that these appointments raised many questions because of their hasty nature which implied that something was likely to happen should the decisions be delayed.

The website asked: “Did Mohammad Bin Zayed, Mutaib and Al-Tuwaijri have an emergency plan in place to pull the rug from underneath Salman’s feet and prevent the appointment of Mohammad Bin Nayef as deputy crown prince? If so, did Salman uncover the plot and quickly take action and chose someone from the grandsons’ generation for the third most powerful position in the state?”

These questions have been raised by those who support Mutaib. Observers believe that not a single letter of this sceptical analysis would have been published without the green light from Abu Dhabi, and even from Mohammad Bin Zayed himself who led the plot that aimed to bring about the appointment of Mutaib Bin Abdullah to the third most powerful position in Saudi Arabia.

Muhammad Bin Zayed is well known for his animosity and hatred for Nayef Bin Abdulaziz and his son Mohammad Bin Nayef. Leaks proving this state of affairs are all over the place; they are well documented and are not hidden from the sight of Nayef’s son or the Saudi authorities.