Conflicting reports coming out of Saudi Arabia. A coup is plausible, given the opposition of Wahhabi hardliners to the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s attempts to modernize the Kingdom a bit. But there doesn’t seem to be a coup taking place, at least as far as we know now.
No coup attempt in Riyadh. A toy drone/plane got too close too the King’s palace and was shot down. #SaudiArabia #Riyadh
— Margherita Stancati 🌸 (@margheritamvs) April 21, 2018
https://twitter.com/ZaidZamanHamid/status/987774099312308224
BREAKING: Reports that King Salman has been evacuated to King Khaled air base as gunfire and explosions continue near the Royal Palace and Khuzama district. pic.twitter.com/rQzvX8jjoy
— H. Sumeri (@IraqiSecurity) April 21, 2018
gravenimage says
Coup attempt in Saudi Arabia, or just an incident with a toy plane?
………………………
I hope not, but it would not totally surprise me. As watery as the king’s proposed reforms have been, it probably enrages a lot of devout Muslims in the “Kingdom of the Two Holy Places”.
J D S says
Coup in Islamic states???
Just not the norm.
Only possibility of any kind of coup in the Muslim world is if the west
forces a coup…..Now how for that to happen??Well anyone want to venture a suggestion?
gravenimage says
Oh, what claptrap. Muslims regularly overthrow other Muslim regimes–such violent palace intrigue has been common for centuries.
mach37 says
If I remember correctly, the first five or six Caliphs all died by being poisoned by their successors. Apparently poisoning is preferred only by the Russians as a favorite assassination method in modern times.
Linda says
I think that Crown Prince is our best hope for desperately needed reform in the Arab world, so I certainly hope he is well protected from coups.
ploome says
He is the best hope for his country-but he plays a deep game
Flavius Claudius Iulianus says
“… our best hope …”
Tell me Linda, how are things there in Saudi Arabia right now?
gravenimage says
I’m afraid it’s still a hideous Muslim hell hole.
mach37 says
S. Arabia seems to be the only Middle Eastern country that is not screaming “Death to Israel!” Maybe they are the only sane country that realizes Israel is not a threat, just wants to be left alone.
Flavius Claudius Iulianus says
mach37 says:
“S. Arabia seems to be the only Middle Eastern country that is not screaming “Death to Israel!””
Saudi Arabia is THE NUMBER ONE BACKER OF JIHAD TERROR IN THE WORLD. They get away with it by being the worlds best practitioners of taqiyya, bar none. If a chance came for them to destroy Israel, they would be the first to press the button.
In other words, what they seem and what they are two different things.
Linda says
Fortunately for me, I don’t live in Saudi Arabia. Never have. Never will. From the press about bin Salman, though, I do think that he is the world’s best hope for bringing any of the Arab world into the 21st Century. Even if he just takes baby steps in modernizing that country, it’s still better than letting the population there wallow in Wahhabism. He sounds better to me than miserable old Erdogan of Turkey or the wretched Mullahs of Iran. I’m not a Middle East expert, but I was thinking that he’s about the closest to a “good guy” as we’ve seen come out of there. At least he’s trying, so far. If you don’t think so, please enlighten me.
gravenimage says
Linda, I doubt there are going to be serious reforms in Saudi Arabia.
I would, of course, *love* to be proven wrong.
ChrisLA says
When the Prince was interviewed on 60 Minutes a few weeks ago, he was enthusiastic about his planned reforms to get KSA into the 21st Century. When asked what might stop him, he said, “Only death.”
I am Tommy says
The whabis do csuse most of the problems around the world. Trouble is nobody oppises them.
And lets face it, the Saudis only have the upper hand because they accidentally live atop loads of oil.
Peterson says
The Saudi is not a problem for world. The problem is Turkey. Everyone marvelled at the beast who had a deadly wound and it recovered from it. These words are likely to be about Turkey.
gravenimage says
The Saudis are not a problem? Does this mean that you consider things like supremacist Mosques, school textbooks teaching Jihad and the abuse of women, and terror attacks like 9/11 not to be a problem?
Just because Turkey is a problem doesn’t mean that Saudi Arabia is not.
Sarah says
I’m way too biased with my disgust and disrespect towards the Saudi’s (and Arab nations in general, to be honest) to formulate a remotely objective opinion on this situation. I’m honestly very xenophobic when it comes to Arabs and their nations, in general. It’s only that in today’s world, if you are White, which I am, being xenophobic is simply not allowed.
A Saudi coup is something I’d celebrate, on the surface. But a Saudi coup, in all honesty, would mean nothing but bad news for the rest of us, so I guess it’d be a short-lived celebration on my behalf.
A coup that wiped out that obscene, filthy royal family of theirs, would stop the Wahhabist bullshit that the royals have ensured, has smoothly flown out into the world. There wouldn’t be the mass funding for propaganda and social engineering with a positive bias towards Wahhabism if Saudi Arabia disintegrated into a mess. The clerics, the military, whoever it is who gains control – they’re going to have hell on their hands just holding the nation together.
The bad news for us? Well, look at oil prices for a start. I filled up yesterday on fuel. I drove past 4 service stations of different branding – and each was charging around AUD$1.60 per litre for basic ’91’ unleaded fuel. I eventually stopped at the fifth servo, who hadn’t raised their prices yet and bought 60 litres of ’91’ unleaded for AUD$1.29 per litre. So a tank of fuel yesterday cost me AUD$77.40. It could’ve been worse. If I’d been twenty minutes later to leave the house, it would have cost me about AUD$100.00.
Our fuel prices are rocketing upwards – according to the government – because of the Syrian bombing that is currently being carried out by the US and other allies. If Saudi Arabia were to stop flowing their oil into the market – Jesus Christ, we’d be paying AUD$2.50 a litre or something horrendous like that – and there would be mass fuel shortages across the West soon enough. Watch how fast our societies will crumble when that occurs. We’re all too divisive internally right now to have our entire nation’s grind to a halt and have our economies lock up. Boom – civil conflict almost straightaway – in almost every Western nation on the planet.
Plus, we all know the Saudi royal family have spite to spare. Everyone knows, if they were taken down, they’d do their damnedest to burn the oil fields. Burn it all and watch the world burn as a result. And that attitude is what would bring just about every Western nation’s military down and descending rapidly into Saudi Arabia, overnight – to ensure the supply of oil was maintained.
And not one single nation in that region would be remotely OK with the idea of all that Western military might, descending on Saudi Arabia, given how close it all is to their own borders. Watch WW3 officially break out, overnight as a result. Iran would use the instability as the perfect excuse and try to go to town on Israel. The entire region is a powderkeg, primed to blow with the slightest touch. A Saudi coup would kick off the end of the world as we know it.
If a coup was real in Saudi Arabia overnight – then by this afternoon, AEST, we’re all going to know about it, big time. Because our world is going to change fundamentally, in an instant. So no, I don’t think a real coup has occurred, or tried to occur.
Given all the risks and terrible dangers that come with a deposed royal family – there is no way in hell that every Western Government on the planet isn’t watching closely for signs of instability in Saudi Arabia. We’ll have spies and incredibly in-depth intelligence programs being run in that region constantly for the sole express purpose of warding off instability against that sickening joke of a royal family. There’s just too much at stake, internationally, to allow the Saudi’s to fall on their own sword. There is, after all, a very very very good reason why the entire West has consistently propped up that filthy rotten inbred royal family since oil was first discovered out in the desert there.
They’re not going anywhere, not if the West can help it.
gravenimage says
If this *was* a coup attempt, it may not have been by someone out to replace the Saudis–it may well have been from one of the many Saudi pretenders to the throne.
I am Tommy says
Yeah, it has gone rather quiet on the “electric car” front.
Britain’s 25 year ecological plan focused more on plastic straws! LMFAO
Bee says
Sarah, your comment is excellent and I agree with all you say. Having lived in that sh….e I can speak from experience. Utterly detestable people and despite the serious consequences of a coup, something inside me would love to see it happen, because that is what that country deserves for spreading their money and vile ideology around the world. What goes around, comes around. Never trust a Saudi as the saying goes, and that includes the utterly despicable religious police, but not in our back yard.
gravenimage says
If the Saudi king is deposed, he would not necessarily be raplaced with anyone better. It would probably be one of the numerous Saudi princes, or else some “Salafist” who thought that the regime was “insufficiently Islamist”. Neither would be apt to be an improvement.
Linda says
No one would want some of the other Saudi princes. For example, Prince Majed bin Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud or Prince Al Waleed bin Halal would probably be disasters.
Linda says
(That’s supposed to be Talal, but spell check changed it to Halal.)
gravenimage says
Yes, Linda–even worse.
Brian hoff says
You Islamoprobic think very saudi is than member of that sect. That not the case at all. At most may be they are 25% of the population of Saudi Arabia. You need to get over being than angery old white man.
ploome says
finding islam repugnant is not a ‘phobic’ position-
it is the natural result of understanding islam as the cult which glorifies ignorance and violence
and is a threat to every rational civilization in the world
gravenimage says
The appalling “Brian hoff”–really, “DefenderofIslam”–wrote:
You Islamoprobic think very saudi is than member of that sect. That not the case at all. At most may be they are 25% of the population of Saudi Arabia.
……………………….
By “that sect”, I presume he means Wahabbism. The Saudi “royal family” rose to power with this sect. Today Ibn Abd Al-Wahhab’s teachings are the official, state-sponsored form of Sunni Islam in Saudi Arabia. In fact, state religious curriculum in Saudi Arabia teaches you that people are basically two sides: Salafis (Wahhabis), who are the winners, the chosen ones, who will go to heaven–and everyone else, including Muslims of other sects and Infidels, who all go to hell.
The idea that any member of the royal family has somehow rejected Wahabbism is damned unlikely.
And it makes little difference, in any case–“Wahabbism” is just orthodox Sunni Islam.
More:
You need to get over being than angery old white man.
……………………….
How does noting these obvious facts make one “than angery old white man”? That doesn’t describe me; so sorry.
Rogue says
This is a huge deal, prayers and not speculation is needed.
-Rogue-
ploome says
This king has essentially abdicated in favor of his son…why would anyone try to kill him?
Linda says
Maybe to send the reformist Crown Prince a message.
gravenimage says
He certainly may be considered “insufficiently Islamic”–or this could just be a power grab.
jimmy says
The coup the coup is on fire we don’t give a damn let the mthfkr burn…
OldFatBaldSociallyIneptRon says
Wahhabism is Muhammadism. ….Muhammad is Allah and Allah is Muhammad….The only truth found in Islam is “War is Deceit”.
hammar says
Changes are needed world wide with the cult of islam. Most of islamics are wrapped to tight. So their will be much opposition to the changes that are changing the old world of islam. You have to watch your back
in those countries and with these people who don’t want to bend. You might end up in the morgue.
Linda says
I am not an expert in Middle Eastern affairs, but this sounds hopeful to me and I hope he is telling the truth:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZqyYVF6fIE
Brian hoff says
I than 68 year old white man and not than anger old man.
gravenimage says
What you are is a Mohammedan–and that includes anger that the Infidels are not under the brutal heel of Islam.
Garfield says
The Houthis in Yemen are FUNDED BY IRAN.
If the Saudis say Iran did this, that is one step closer to war with iran.