The crown prince forged the Saudi king’s signature to declare war
Last Updated on August 20, 2024 10:02 am
Saudi Arabia’s influential Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman forged the signature of his father, King Salman bin Abdulaziz, to declare war on Yemen.
Former Saudi official Saad Al-Jabri claimed this in an interview published on Monday (August 19) by the BBC.
In the interview, Al-Jabri said, instead of King Salman, the crown prince himself signed the royal decree and declared war. A trusted and reliable official of the Saudi Ministry of Interior has confirmed that. We were shocked to learn that there was a royal order authorizing military intervention.”
In early 2015, Yemen’s ruling Saudi-backed president Abd Rabbu Mansour al-Hadi fled to Saudi Arabia after being attacked by Houthi rebels. The Saudi-led coalition launched a military campaign against the Houthis in Yemen to bring back the ousted president.
The former Saudi intelligence officer is currently in exile in Canada. He has had a bitter relationship with the country for years over the incarceration of his children. Al-Jabri believes that the children were detained as a strategy to bring him back to the country.
He also told the BBC, “The crown prince forged his father’s signature.” The king’s mental condition was gradually deteriorating.
Saudi Arabia has not commented on this serious allegation. The country called him a ‘condemned former government official’.
When al-Jabri’s allegations came, Crown Prince Salman had been installed as the country’s de facto ruler. He was also appointed as the Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia. Ever since he became crown prince, he has been suppressing the slightest chance of challenging him.
More than 150,000 people have died in Saudi Arabia’s war against the Houthis, an armed group backed by Iran, in Yemen, which is considered one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters. Crown Prince Salman was the defense minister at the start of the war.
After the start of the war in Gaza, the Houthis have been attacking commercial vessels in the Red Sea to damage Israel in support and solidarity with the Palestinians.
Source: Associated Press (AP)