Saudi ruler dead: King Abdullah dies in hospital aged 90

[xor_rox]

Saudi ruler dead: King Abdullah dies in hospital aged 90, Crown Prince Salman succeeds

Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz has died in hospital while undergoing treatment for pneumonia. An official statement has named Saudi Crown Prince Salman the new king.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_pcOwiWufk



David Cameron 'saddened' by Saudi king Abdullah's death

Prime minister praises Saudi Arabian ruler for 'his commitment to peace and for strengthening understanding between faiths

David Cameron has expressed his sadness at the death of Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah, and paid tribute to his work for peace in the region.

The king died on Thursday aged 90, and his successor is to be his 79-year-old half-brother, Prince Salman.

Cameron, who visited Saudi Arabia in 2012, said: "I am deeply saddened to hear of the death of the custodian of the two holy mosques, His Majesty King Abdullah bin Abd Al Aziz Al Saud.

"He will be remembered for his long years of service to the kingdom, for his commitment to peace and for strengthening understanding between faiths.

"My thoughts and prayers are with the Saudi royal family and the people of the kingdom at this sad time.

"I sincerely hope that the long and deep ties between our two kingdoms will continue and that we can continue to work together to strengthen peace and prosperity in the world."

Cameron's meeting with the king three years ago was a visit intended "to broaden and deepen the UK-Saudi partnership on issues from social development to security to business relations".

The prime minister spoke with the king in a telephone call last year on issues including the threat from Isis. He thanked the king for a "significant" donation to the humanitarian appeal in Iraq.

King Abdullah was also considered a strong US ally and, following his death, President Barack Obama praised him for taking "bold steps" to help with the Arab Peace Initiative.

Obama said he "valued King Abdullah's perspective and appreciated our genuine and warm friendship".

The king was born in the Saudi Arabian capital of Riyadh in 1924, and became crown prince in 1982, before ascending to the throne in 2005.

Saudeissa vallan perii siis altzheimer-potilas, joka tuskin montaa vuotta pystyy maata hallitsemaan. Tämän jälkeen valtaa onkin tavoittelemassa satoja prinssejä. Samaan aikaan ISIS kolkuttelee maan rajoilla ja mm. Jemenistä on tullut Iranin liittolainen. Elämme erittäin mielenkiintoisia aikoja.

[Asra]

Venäjä kiittää, kun öljyn hinta lähtee nousuun ainakin toistaiseksi.

[Rubiikinkuutio]

Varmaan aika odotettu juttu oli? Miten vakaa tuo vallanperimys tuolla on? Onko tällä kuinka todennäköuisesti isojakin vaikutuksia maan ulkopuolelle, jos alkavat rähistä siellä?

[RP]

Ibn Saudilla (kuoli 1953) oli kohtuullisen kokoisen olympiajoukkueen verran lapsia, mutta nyt ne alkavat käymään vähiin. Kaikki hänen seuraajansa ovat olleet keskenään veljiä tai velipuoliaan, niin myös uusi kuningas ja kruununprinssi - mutta sitten ilmeisesti Saudeissakin pitää tehdä sukupolvenvaihdos.

[Rubiikinkuutio]

Ibn Saudilla (kuoli 1953) oli kohtuullisen kokoisen olympiajoukkueen verran lapsia, mutta nyt ne alkavat käymään vähiin. Kaikki hänen seuraajansa ovat olleet keskenään veljiä tai velipuoliaan, niin myös uusi kuningas ja kruununprinssi - mutta sitten ilmeisesti Saudeissakin pitää tehdä sukupolvenvaihdos.

Lähinnä kysymys kai on kuinka paljon sitä on jo käytännössä tehty. Jos ei, niin mahdollisuus epävakauteen on toki suurempi.

[RP]

Lähinnä kysymys kai on kuinka paljon sitä on jo käytännössä tehty. Jos ei, niin mahdollisuus epävakauteen on toki suurempi.

Kirjoitin omani itseasiassa itsenäisesti, vaikka se vähän näyttikin vastuakselta viestiisi.
Kruunuperillinen oli jo sovittu aikaisemmin ja uusi kruununprinssikin oli asetettu perimisjärjestyksessä silloin toiseksi. Itse asiassa veljeksiä on vielä enemmänkin, mutta uusi kruununprinssi (s. 1945) on heistä nuorin, joten jos hänen terveytensä on kohtuullisen hyvä, hänen perillisensä valinnasta voi tulla vaikeaa. En tiedä onko seuraavan sukupolven miespuolisia serkuksia yli vai alle sata, paljon kuitenkin.

[Rubiikinkuutio]

Venäjä kiittää, kun öljyn hinta lähtee nousuun ainakin toistaiseksi.

Teki vaivaisen 3% piikin. Ei mitään käytännön reaktiota vielä siis markkinoilta. Katsotaan mihin jää.

[guest12632]

Kepeitä multia kunkulle.

Saudeissa vallan perii siis altzheimer-potilas, joka tuskin montaa vuotta pystyy maata hallitsemaan. Tämän jälkeen valtaa onkin tavoittelemassa satoja prinssejä. Samaan aikaan ISIS kolkuttelee maan rajoilla ja mm. Jemenistä on tullut Iranin liittolainen. Elämme erittäin mielenkiintoisia aikoja.

Onko kuninkaalla Saudeissa paljonkin valtaa? Minulla on se käsitys, että tuolla suunnalla päälliköivät lähinnä uskonoppineet.

The king died on Thursday aged 90, and his successor is to be his 79-year-old half-brother, Prince Salman.

Jotenkin 79-vuotias ei istu mielikuvaani prinssistä, mutta eihän se tosiaan ikää kysy.

[Rubiikinkuutio]

Onko kuninkaalla Saudeissa paljonkin valtaa? Minulla on se käsitys, että tuolla suunnalla päälliköivät lähinnä uskonoppineet.

Kyllä olen ymmärtänyt, että kunkku pitää siellä oikeasti valtaa ja valitsee sopivimmat uskonoppineet. En tosin liikaa ole perehtynyt, niin että saa korjata jos joku on tutustunut paremmin.

[Asra]

Kunkku on siellä sitä aivan kirjaimellisesti. Kun kuningas vaihtuu saattaa myös maan ulkopoliittinen linja vaihtua aika radikaalistikin, joka heijastuu epävarmuutena öljysijoittajien keskuudessa. Saudin suvun liitto wahhabien kanssa pitää huolen, etteivät uudistuksen askeleet vie ainakaan kohti länsimielisyyttä.

[Rubiikinkuutio]

Saudin suvun liitto wahhabien kanssa pitää huolen, etteivät uudistuksen askeleet vie ainakaan kohti länsimielisyyttä.

Kansa pitää huolen, etteivät uudistuksen askeleet vie ainakaan kohti länsimielisyyttä. Eivät Saundi-arabialaiset tahdo länsimaalaisuutta, eikä kukaan sitä sinne voi pakottaa.

[Mangustin]

Kruunuperillinen oli jo sovittu aikaisemmin ja uusi kruununprinssikin oli asetettu perimisjärjestyksessä silloin toiseksi. Itse asiassa veljeksiä on vielä enemmänkin, mutta uusi kruununprinssi (s. 1945) on heistä nuorin, joten jos hänen terveytensä on kohtuullisen hyvä, hänen perillisensä valinnasta voi tulla vaikeaa. En tiedä onko seuraavan sukupolven miespuolisia serkuksia yli vai alle sata, paljon kuitenkin.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Saud

Tuon mukaan pojanpoikia on vaivaiset 37 elossa, mutta kyllä siitäkin perimysriita saadaan aikaan. Saudi-Arabia on ihka oikea monarkia ilman perustuslakia (paitsi wahhabistinen islam) eikä siellä ole selkeää vallanperimysjärjestystä. Vrt. Iso-Britanniaan, missä Elisabet II:n kruununperijöitä on myös satoja mutta kuninkaalliset ja aatelisto on sovussa sikäli että jono kruunulle on selvä, eikä siinä suvaita ohittelua joka merkitsisi parlamentin ja ja perustuslain ohittamista ja millä lihaksilla - ei briteillä talous ole riippuvainen yhdestä sektorista jonka voi ottaa haltuunsa ja ostaa sillä armeija ja anglikaanisen kirkon tuen. Ajatuskin jostain ruusujen sodan uusinnasta nykypäivänä on huvittava.

Saudeissa vallitsee rautakautinen seemiläiskulttuuri. Monivaimoisuuden seurauksena kuningashuoneella on wikipedian mukaan 15 000 jäsentä, joista "valtaa käyttävää sisäpiiriä" yksistään on 2000 henkilöä. Koko kuningaskunta on periaatteessa al-Saudien henkilökohtaista omaisuutta, eikä se tietenkään jakaudu tasaisesti perheen sisällä. Toiset on kahmineet enemmän, ja pystyvät ostamaan pienemmillä kuukausirahoilla kituuttavien sukulaisten lojaliteetteja. Arabit tunnetusti tykkää serkusavioliitoista, ja omien lisäksi al-Saudit ovat yhtä perheverkostoa "pappisdynastia"* al-Wahhabien kanssa ja ovat sujuvasti lankoutuneet myös muiden arabianniemen tärkeiden sukujen kanssa. Prinsseille jaetut ministeriöt on enemmän läänityksiä kuin kansaa palvelevia virkoja, ja aika monella ulkomaallakin lienee suosikkinsa jota yrittävät pelata omaa agendaansa tukemaan. Uudet valintakriteerit nuoremman polven kruununprinssille ovat:

-Support within the Al Saud
    -Tenure in government
    -Tribal affiliations and origins of a candidate's mother
    -Religious persona
    -Acceptance by the Ulema
    -Support by the merchant community
    -Popularity among the general Saudi citizenry.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Succession_to_the_Saudi_Arabian_throne

*toki tiedämme että muslimeilla ei ole pappeja, ei muuten ole protestanteillakaan, mutta tämmöinen hallintojärjestys on suomalaisille lähinnä tuttu Raamatusta, historiasta ja fantasiasta. Siksi vertaus Aaronin ja Daavidin dynastioiden valtapeliin 3000 vuotta sitten havainnollistaa Wahhabien ja Saudien suhdetta.

[RP]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Saud

Tuon mukaan pojanpoikia on vaivaiset 37 elossa, mutta kyllä siitäkin perimysriita saadaan aikaan.

Minä lukisin tuon niin, että siinä on 37 poliittisesti merkittävimmissä asemissa olevaa. Ensimmäisen kuninkaan vanhimmalla pojalla yksistään oli näköjään 115 lasta. Vaikka ainakin pääsäntönä muilla veljeksillä oli lapsia ainakin yhden dekadin vähemmän, kyllä noita serkuksia täytyy olla aika paljon enemmän.

[Ant.]

Saudin suvun liitto wahhabien kanssa pitää huolen, etteivät uudistuksen askeleet vie ainakaan kohti länsimielisyyttä.

Kansa pitää huolen, etteivät uudistuksen askeleet vie ainakaan kohti länsimielisyyttä. Eivät Saundi-arabialaiset tahdo länsimaalaisuutta, eikä kukaan sitä sinne voi pakottaa.

Näin se valitettavasti taitaa olla. Saudiarabialaiset eivät liene pettyneitä maan ääri-islamistiseen linjaan, vaan korkeintaan siihen, että raha jakautuu miten jakautuu. Asia ei vapaissa vaaleissa muuttuisi. Korkeintaan rahat itselleen haalivan klikin nimi vaihtuisi. Islamille, liberaalien bloggarien kiduttamiselle ja Aasiasta maahan otettujen kotiapulaisten ja rakennustyöläisten rääkkäämiselle ja tappamiselle lienee kansalaisten vankkumaton tuki.

Euroopan kannalta kannattaa toivoa, että Saudi-Arabiassa nykyinen diktatuuri säilyy. Jos siellä alkavat mellakat, alkaa maasta virrata sakkia Eurooppaan aiheuttamaan hankaluuksia ja maan asukkaat kärsivät entistä enemmän. Samoin olisi Saddamit ja Gaddafit olisi pitänyt jättää rauhaan. Samoin al-Assad.

[TheVanishedTerrorist]

Jäikö se naisen yliajamaksi?

[Mangustin]

Aika jänskää kun naapurimaa Jemenissa ei ole minkäänlaista hallintoa ja Saudien tuore kuningas on vapiseva vanhus. Sitä mä vaan kun islamin eskatologiaan kuuluu "Adenista lähtevä suuri tuli" ja sitä noi Houthi-kapinalliset muiden mukana yrittää sytytellä.. 

'Total deadlock' in Yemen as prime minister, president and cabinet resign
8:30PM GMT 22 Jan 2015

Yemen faced renewed turmoil on Thursday night when the country's Western-backed president surrendered to the rebels who have seized his capital by tendering his resignation.
Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi sent a letter to parliament saying the country was in "total deadlock".

"We apologise to the honourable chamber and to the Yemeni people after we reached a dead end," he added.

A Shia rebel movement, known as the Houthis, captured most of the capital, Sana'a, in September last year. Since then, the insurgents have steadily tightened their grip on the city, bombarding Mr Hadi's residence on Wednesday.
On the same day, the Houthis broke a peace agreement and fighting escalated across the city. On Thursday, Mr Hadi resigned along with Khalid Baha, the prime minister as well reportedly the cabinet.  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/yemen/11364057/Total-deadlock-in-Yemen-as-prime-minister-president-and-cabinet-resign.html

[Rubiikinkuutio]

Teki vaivaisen 3% piikin. Ei mitään käytännön reaktiota vielä siis markkinoilta. Katsotaan mihin jää.

Maanantain aamupäivä ei tuonut muutosta. Piikki jäi piikiksi ja ei ole noussut viikonlopun jäljiltä. Öljyn hinta käytännössä uudessa ennätyspohjassa.

[hattiwatti]

Pepe Escobar kirjoittelee juuripa tuosta öljyn hintamekanismista, kannattaa lukea linkin takaa:

http://rt.com/op-edge/223283-saudi-oil--price-history/

Kirjoituksesta voisin lainata tähän perhesotkuista kertovaa saippuaoopperaa:

King Abdullah, 91, was diagnosed with pneumonia, hospitalized in Riyadh on New Year's Eve, and was breathing with a tube. He may – or may not, this being the secretive House of Saud – have lung cancer. He won't last long. The fact that he is hailed as a "progressive reformer" tells everything one needs to know about Saudi Arabia. "Freedom of expression"? You must be joking.

So who'll be next? The first in the line of succession should be Crown Prince Salman, 79, also defense minister. He was governor of Riyadh province for a hefty 48 years. It was this certified falcon who supervised the wealth of private "donations" to the Afghan mujahedeen in the 1980s jihad, in tandem with hardcore Wahhabi preachers. Salman's sons include the governor of Medina, Prince Faisal. Needless to add, the Salman family controls virtually all of Saudi media.

To get to the Holy Grail Salman must be proven fit. That's not a given; and on top of it Abdullah, a tough nut to crack, already survived two of his crown princes, Sultan and Nayef. Salman's prospects look bleak; he has had spinal surgery, a stroke and may be suffering from – how appropriate - dementia.

It also does not bode well that when Salman was promoted to Deputy Defense Minister, soon enough he was shown the door – as he got himself mixed up with Bandar Bush's atrocious jihadi game in Syria.

Anyway, Salman already has a successor; second Deputy Prime Minister Prince Muqrin, former governor of Medina province and then head of Saudi intelligence. Muqrin is very, very close to Abdullah. Muqrin seems to be the last "capable" son of Ibn Saud; "capable" here is a figure of speech. The real problem though starts when Muqrin becomes Crown Prince. Because then the next in line will be picked from the grandsons of Ibn Saud.

Enter the so-called third generation princes – a pretty nasty bunch. Chief among them is none other than Mitab bin Abdullah, 62, the son of the king; cries of nepotism do proceed. Like a warlord, Mitab controls his own posse in the National Guard. Sources told me Riyadh is awash in rumors that Abdullah and Muqrin have made a deal: Abdullah gets Muqrin to become king, and Muqrin makes Mitab crown prince. Once again, this being the "secretive" House of Saud, the Hollywood mantra applies: no one knows anything.
bdullah's sons are all over the place; governor of Mecca, deputy governor of Riyadh, deputy foreign minister, president of the Saudi Red Crescent. Same for Salman's sons. But then there's Muhammad bin Nayif, son of the late Crown Prince Nayif, who became Interior Minister in 2012, in charge of ultra-sensitive internal security, as in cracking down on virtually anything. He is the top competitor against Mitab among the third-generation princes.

So forget about family "unity" when such juicy loot as an oil hacienda impersonating a whole country is in play. And yet whoever inherits the loot will have to face the abyss, and the same litany of distress; rising unemployment; abysmal inequality; horrendous sectarian divide; jihadism in all its forms – not least the fake Ibrahim Caliphate in "Syraq", already threatening to march towards Mecca and Medina; the unspeakably medieval Council of Ulemas (the lashing/amputating/beheading-loving bunch); total dependency on oil; unbounded paranoia towards Iran; and a wobbly relationship with His Masters Voice, the US.
When will they call the cavalry?

And it so happens that the real 'Masters of the Universe' in the Washington-New York axis are debating exactly the erosion of this relationship; as in the House of Saud having no one to talk to but the "puppets", from Bush Two minions to Kerry at most on occasion. This analysis contends that any promises made by Kerry over the House of Saud "cooperation" to damage Russia's economy really mean nothing.

Rumbles from 'Masters of the Universe' territory indicate that the CIA sooner or later might move against the House of Saud. In this case the only way for the House of Saud to secure its survival would be to become friendly with none other than Moscow. This exposes once more the House of Saud's suicidal present course of trying to hurt Russia's economy.

As everyone is inexorably an outsider when faced with the totally opaque House of Saud, there's an analytical current that swears they know what they're doing. Not necessarily. The House of Saud seems to believe that pleasing US neocons will improve their status in Washington. That simply won't happen. The neocons remain obsessed about the House of Saud helping Pakistan to develop its nuclear missiles; some of them – once again, that's open to speculation – might even be deployed inside Saudi Arabia for "defensive purposes" against that mythical Iranian "threat."

Messy? That doesn't even begin to describe it. But one thing is certain; whatever game Riyadh thinks it's playing, they'd better start seriously talking to Moscow. But please, don't send Bandar Bush on another Russian mission.

[hattiwatti]

http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/saudi-palace-coup-37093212

King Abdullah's writ lasted all of 12 hours. Within that period the Sudairis, a rich and politically powerful clan within the House of Saud, which had been weakened by the late king, burst back into prominence. Its a palace coup in all but name.

Salman moved swiftly to undo the work of his half-brother. He decided not to change his crown prince Muqrin, who was picked by King Abdullah, but he may choose to deal with him later. However, he swiftly appointed another leading figure from the Sudairi clan. Mohammed Bin Nayef, the interior minister, is to be his deputy crown prince. It is no secret that Abdullah wanted his son Meteb for that position, but now he is out.

More significantly, Salman, himself a Sudairi, attempted to secure the second generation by giving his 35-year-old son Mohammed the powerful fiefdom of the defence ministry. The second post Mohammed got was arguably more important still. He is now general secretary of the royal court. All of these changes were announced before Abdullah was even buried.

The general secretaryship was the position held by the Cardinal Richelieu of Abdullah's royal court, Khalid al-Tuwaijri. It was a lucrative business handed down from father to son and started by Abdul Aziz al-Tuwaijri. The Tuwaijris became the king's gatekeepers. No royal audience could be held without their permission, involvement or knowledge. Tuwaijri was the key player in foreign intrigues, subverting the Egyptian revolution, sending in troops to crush the uprising in Bahrain, financing ISIL in Syria in the early stages of the civil war through his previous ally, former Saudi intelligence chief Prince Bandar bin Sultan.

Salman suffers from Alzheimers

The link between Tuwaijri and the Gulf region's fellow neo-con Mohammed bin Zayed, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, was close. Tuwaijri is now out, and his long list of foreign clients - starting with the Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi - may well feel a cooler air blowing from Riyadh. Sisi failed to attend the funeral on Friday. Just a matter of bad weather?

Salman's state of health is cause for concern, which is why the power he has given his son is more significant than other appointments announced. Aged 79, Salman is known to have Alzheimers, but the exact state of his dementia is a source of speculation. He is known to have held cogent conversations as recently as last October. But he can also forget what he said minutes ago, or faces he has known all his life, according to other witnesses. This is typical of the disease. I understand the number of hospital visits in the last few months has increased and that he did not walk around, as he did before.

So his ability to steer the ship of state, in a centralised country where no institutions, political parties or even national politics exist is open to question. But one indication of a change of direction may lie in two attempts recently to establish links with Egyptian opposition figures.

......
......
Crisis south of the border

The need for a change of course is all too apparent. On the very night of the royal drama, a political earthquake was taking place in Saudi Arabia's backyard, Yemen. President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, his prime minister and government resigned after days of virtual house arrest by Houthi militia. Hadi's resignation leaves two forces in control of the country, both of them armed to the teeth: an Iranian-backed militia which gets its training from Hezbollah, and al-Qaeda, posing as the defender of Sunni muslims.

It is a disaster for Saudi Arabia and what is left of the ability of the Gulf Cooperation Council to make any deal stick. Their foreign ministers met only the day before. Yemen's former strongman Ali Abdullah Saleh, who was levered out of power three years ago and who according to leaked telephone calls, advised the Houthis on how to grab power, is now calling for fresh elections, and there were already calls on Thursday night for the south to split away from the North. Yemen, in other words, has officially become the Middle East's fourth failed state.

The meteoric rise of the Houthis in Yemen was not the result of spontaneous combustion. It was planned and plotted months ago by Saleh and the United Arab Emirates. Saleh's son, the Yemeni ambassador to the UAE, was a key figure in this foreign intrigue, and as I reported before, he met an Iranian delegation in Rome. This was picked up by US intelligence and communicated to Hadi. The year before, the then Saudi intelligence chief Prince Bandar flew a leading member of the Houthi delegation via London for a meeting. Incredible as it seemed, the Saudis were re-opening contact with an Iranian-backed Zaydi or Shia sect with whom they had once fought bitter wars.

The Saudi/Emirati plan was to use the Houthis to engage and destroy their real target which was Islah, the Islamist party and chief representative of the Sunni tribes in Yemen. As elsewhere in the Arab world, the entire focus of Abdullah foreign policy after 2011 was to stop the Arab Spring in its tracks in Tunisia and Egypt and crush all forces capable of mounting an effective opposition in the Gulf States. Everything else, including the rise of Saudi's foremost regional rival Iran, became subservient to that paramount aim to crush democratic political Islam.

The Yemen plan backfired when Islah refused to take up arms to resist the Houthi advance. As a result, the Houthis took more control than they were expected to, and the result is that Yemen stands on the brink of civil war. Al-Qaeda's claim to be the only fighters prepared to defend Sunni tribesmen has just been given a major boost.

[hattiwatti]

Tääkin vielä:

http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2015/01/25/new-saudi-king-was-major-supporter-of-al-qaeda.html

.....In 2006, Saudi democratic opposition leaders in Britain fingered Salman, the then-governor of Riyadh province, as providing material assistance to Al Qaeda forces operating in Afghanistan before and after 9/11. The opposition revealed that Al Qaeda members routinely traveled through Riyadh on their way to Pakistan and then to Taliban-ruled regions of Afghanistan. These Saudi insiders also reported that Salman's governor's office arranged for cash payments, hotels, and air fares for the Al Qaeda members.

There is little doubt that Salman's activities on behalf of Al Qaeda were known to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), which approved of the Saudi pipeline of providing Arab guerrillas to Afghanistan's mujahedin forces since the early days of Langley's involvement in the jihadist campaign to oust Afghanistan's socialist and secular government from power. Shortly before his suspicious death in Scotland in 2005, former British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook wrote in The Guardian that «Al Qaeda» was a CIA database of mercenaries, financiers, and interlocutors used by the CIA to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan: «Throughout the 80s he [Osama bin Laden] was armed by the CIA and funded by the Saudis to wage jihad against the Russian occupation of Afghanistan. Al-Qaida [sic], literally 'the database,' was originally the computer file of the thousands of mujahedin who were recruited and trained with help from the CIA to defeat the Russians».

From the accounts of the Saudi opposition and Cook, it is inconceivable that Salman was unaware of the activities of his governor's staff in Riyadh.

When a Saudi prince and a reputed relative of King Salman's chief adviser Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, also named Nayef, was caught by France trafficking in cocaine in 1999, the Saudi Interior Ministry informed Paris in 2000 that if France brought criminal charges against the minor prince Nayef, a lucrative $7 billion radar defense contract, Project SBGDP («Garde Frontiere»), with the French firm Thales would be canceled. The details are found in a Confidential French diplomatic cable dated February 21, 2000. The subject of the cable was an audience between French officials and Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef in the case of a Saudi plane suspected of trafficking in narcotics («Prince Nayef, ministre saoudien de l'interieure. Affaire de l'avion saoudien soupçonne d'avoir servi a un traffic stupefiants.») The cable was sent by the technical adviser in the French ministry of the interior François Gouyette to the French justice ministry and the French embassy in Riyadh. Gouyette became the French ambassador to the United Arab Emirates in 2001.

The cocaine trafficked by Nayef was, according to a Confidential U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) document, being used to fund Al Qaeda in Afghanistan. The cash that was paid to terrorist recruits passing through Riyadh was obtained by the Interior Ministry from the drug proceeds coffers held in secret bank accounts. The CIA was aware of and encouraged the off-the-books payments to the Al Qaeda recruits, just as it is doing today with the Al Qaeda recruits being emptied from Saudi prisons and paid by Saudi government interlocutors.
.....