{"id":16282,"date":"2018-06-18T16:33:49","date_gmt":"2018-06-18T21:33:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/?p=16282"},"modified":"2018-06-18T16:33:50","modified_gmt":"2018-06-18T21:33:50","slug":"an-imminent-crackup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/2018\/06\/18\/an-imminent-crackup\/","title":{"rendered":"An Imminent Crackup?"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Lawfare<\/strong><\/em>, Chibli Mallat presents<\/a> an analysis of the leadership situation in Saudi Arabia which is a bit unsettling:<\/p>\n

There have been hints of open dissent within the family, and the stakes are existential for [Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman (MBS)]. Last November, some of the most prominent members of Saudi high society were confined to house arrest at\u00a0the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Riyadh, including 11 members of the royal family and the most prominent businessmen in the kingdom. Although billed as an anti-corruption crackdown, it certainly looked like the crown prince consolidating his power. Reuters reported<\/a> at the time that MBS ordered the arrests \u201cwhen he realized more relatives opposed him becoming king than he had thought.\u201d\u00a0Eleven other members<\/a> of the royal family were arrested on Jan.\u00a04.<\/p>\n

The young prince is, by all accounts, determined to take over as quickly as possible. His father is 82 and suffers from a mild form of Alzheimer\u2019s. King Salman could change his mind if his unhappy brothers and nephews get his ear. The opposition at large has grown also because of the setbacks of Saudi foreign policy, mostly ascribed to MBS\u2019s impetuous character, in Yemen, Syria, Lebanon and\u00a0Iraq. His commitment to the glitzy and increasingly elusive 2030 Vision<\/a> plan has also drawn concern. There was far less money\u00a0to go around in 2017 and far greater entitlement expected by the ruling family\u2019s proliferating membership, dissenters of all kinds\u00a0and the population at large. And there is the Arab Spring\u2014the real, nonviolent one on the streets and in social media,\u00a0which first emerged in preparations for a “Day of Rage<\/a>”\u00a0on March 11, 2011, that\u00a0authorities prevented from being held.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As Saudi Arabia is our most important Arab ally, any sort of upset during a power transfer has to be of concern and is worth watching. And if MBS makes it a violent act, do we wish to remain allied with Saudi Arabia? The move from fossil fuel dependence to renewables would make this question much easier to answer. The current Administration is thus making that more difficult.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Lawfare, Chibli Mallat presents an analysis of the leadership situation in Saudi Arabia which is a bit unsettling: There have been hints of open dissent within the family, and the stakes are existential for [Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman (MBS)]. Last November, some of the most prominent members of \u2026 Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16282"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16282\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16283,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16282\/revisions\/16283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}