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Saudi Arabia’s royal family is closing ranks to protect the monarchy from a storm of criticism after the killing of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the kingdom’s Istanbul consulate.
For now, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s position as heir to the throne appears secure, royals and people close to the ruling family say.
But as international pressure has mounted, octogenarian King Salman has resumed a more active role in government and his 33-year-old son’s power could be diluted, those people said. There are also indications that King Salman and Prince Mohammed are more open to listening to voices from the wider royal family after years spent working to concentrate power.
Early Tuesday, one of the king’s younger brothers, who opposed Prince Mohammed’s promotion to crown prince, Prince Ahmed bin Abdulaziz, returned to Saudi Arabia in a move seen by people close to the royal family and foreign officials as an effort to shore up support for the monarchy.
“There is an appreciation that together we stand and divided we fall,” one senior member of the royal family said. “There is a degree of fear and panic here.”
The death of Mr. Khashoggi—who was killed by a team of Saudi operatives on Oct. 2—has strained Riyadh’s ties with foreign powers including its most important ally, the U.S.
The episode has put pressure on Crown Prince Mohammed, who, since being named heir apparent last year has overseen a campaign against perceived dissidents while also pursuing plans to remake his country’s oil-dependent economy and loosen some conservative social strictures.
Two of the prince’s closest aides have lost their jobs because they are suspected of involvement in the plot. More of the prince’s advisers are expected to be sidelined or fired, according to people familiar with the matter. Saudi officials have vehemently denied that the crown prince had any knowledge of the operation.
Prince Mohammed has publicly denounced the killing as a “hideous incident,” and vowed the perpetrators will be brought to justice.
Within the royal family there is resentment and frustration with the young prince’s missteps. But family members say, there is also recognition that they are better off with him than without him. “We don’t like his style and he is shaking the kingdom perhaps way too aggressively—but his removal will only make things worse,” one royal said.
Many fear reopening the question of succession at a time of crisis risks destabilizing the monarchy and weakening its hold on power. And few would be in a position to challenge the leadership. Since last year, the king and his son, the crown prince, have pushed aside, silenced from speaking out, and even detained some of the family’s most prominent princes.
As Saudi Arabia’s Western allies have distanced themselves from the kingdom’s leadership in the wake of the crisis, others have stood by it. King Abdullah of Jordan and Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan—both recipients of Saudi aid—showed up at Riyadh’s Ritz-Carlton hotel last week for an investor conference patronized by Prince Mohammed. So did tycoon Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, who had been imprisoned in the Ritz last year as part of the anticorruption campaign led by the crown prince, his cousin.
In the immediate aftermath of the murder, according to royals and people close to the government, the Saudi leadership considered the possibility of the king abdicating in favor of Prince Mohammed as a way to solidify his position domestically and internationally. That option has since been discarded, they said.
Prince Ahmed, a younger brother of the king and a former minister of interior, was one of few senior royals who opposed the elevation of Prince Mohammed to the position of crown prince last year. After opposition to the crown prince coalesced around Prince Ahmed, the government last year temporarily restricted his movements and he later moved to London.
His return to the kingdom, royals say, is the clearest sign yet of the profound impact the Khashoggi crisis is having within the royal family. He landed in Riyadh in the early hours of Tuesday and was greeted by a large delegation that included Crown Prince Mohammed and his younger brother Prince Khalid bin Salman, the Saudi ambassador to Washington, according to people familiar with the matter.
Before returning to Saudi Arabia, Prince Ahmed received assurances from the British government that he would not be danger, according to an advisor to the king’s royal court.
His return is also a sign the country’s rulers may be open to the more consensus-driven form of leadership that for decades characterized the royal family. That model eroded after King Salman came to power in early 2015, and the king and his son have gradually concentrated power within a single branch of the family—their own.
“The family has united behind him. They don’t want him out. But there is a price to pay: They will remove his advisers and replace them with older ones,” a Western official who tracks the Persian Gulf said. “The thinking is: Prince Mohammed will rule for the next 50 years and he will learn from his mistakes. He will become wiser with time.”
Write to Margherita Stancati at [email protected] and Summer Said at [email protected]
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