Mohammed bin Salman forged his father's signature on the Yemen war decree
Mohammed bin Salman forged his father's signature on the Yemen war decree
 |
| Salman bin Abdulaziz and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Photo: Collected |
Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman forged his father Salman bin Abdulaziz's signature on a royal decree to commit troops to the ground war in the early stages of Yemen's civil war. The former intelligence chief of Saudi Major General Saad Al-Jabri claimed so.
Saad al-Jabri was Saudi Arabia's intelligence chief until he fled the country in 2017. He said in the BBC documentary titled 'The Kingdom: The World's Most Powerful Prince' that he discussed the war, which began in September 2014, with Susan Rice, then US President Barack Obama's national security adviser. Susan Rice then said Washington only supported air strikes (not ground strikes).
Al-Jabri said that in early 2015, the crown prince was determined to go ahead (in the Yemen war) in defiance of Washington. We are surprised that there was a royal decree authorizing land warfare. He (Mohammed bin Salman) forged his father's signature for that royal decree. When the king's mental powers were declining.
The former intelligence chief said that he has a 'credible and reliable' source of the complaint related to the Ministry of Home Affairs.
Al-Jabri also said that the CIA station chief in Riyadh was also angered by the crown prince's decision.
In March 2015, a Saudi-led coalition including the United Arab Emirates intervened on behalf of the Yemeni government to oust the Houthis after they took control of Sana'a, Yemen's largest city.
According to UN reports, coalition airstrikes have killed thousands of civilians. The Houthis have also fired missiles and drones at civilian infrastructure in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
The coalition failed to drive the Houthis out of the Yemeni capital. The group now controls the north of the war-torn country. In addition, most of the southern region is controlled by the separatist Southern Transitional Council.
Former head of the Secret Intelligence Service-MI6, the British government's spy agency, John Sawyers, said he did not know whether Mohammed bin Salman forged the royal decree. It is clear, however, that the decision to intervene militarily in Yemen was Mohammed bin Salman's. It wasn't his father's decision, though his father was with it.
Elsewhere in the BBC documentary, al-Jabri said he spoke to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in January 2015 when former ruler King Abdullah was on his deathbed in hospital. Before speaking, Yuvraj asks Jabri to leave his mobile phone outside and Yuvraj himself does the same.
"The prince was so afraid of spies that he disconnected the only landline telephone in the room where they met," said al-Jabri. In his remarks, the prince then talked about selling shares in Saudi state oil producer Aramco and plans to diversify the economy and give Saudi women more freedom to join the workforce.
Muhammad bin Salman sums up his ambitions by saying, 'Have you heard of Alexander the Great?'
'poison ring'
In an interview on Columbia Broadcasting System's "Sixty Minutes" three years ago, al-Jabri alleged that Mohammed bin Salman hinted at killing King Abdullah with a poison ring in 2014. "At that time he was banned from shaking hands with the king for quite some time," Jabri said.
Before fleeing to Canada in 2017, Al-Jabri was second-in-command of the country's interior ministry. Shortly thereafter, his then boss, Interior Minister Bin Nayef, was placed under house arrest. The former top adviser is believed to be one of several prominent Saudi nationals, including the prince and dissidents.
Al-Jabri's two children, Omar, Sarah, and son-in-law Salem Almuzaini are currently in Saudi prisons. Omar and Sarah were banned from leaving Saudi Arabia in 2017 when they planned to attend college in the United States. In addition, Almuzaini was abducted from Dubai and sent back to Saudi Arabia, according to legal documents.