Saudi prince in exile launches opposition movement, calls for constitutional monarchy

A Saudi prince living in exile in Germany has launched an opposition movement in a bid to change the ruling regime, establish a constitutional monarchy and cease human rights abuses in the repressive country.

News ID: 447116

Date: 18 September 2019 - 23:42

RNA - “Over the past three years, the Saudi monarch (King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud) has turned into a sacred cow, who commands obedience,” Prince Khaled bin Farhan Al Saud, who escaped Saudi Arabia himself over a decade ago, said in a video posted on YouTube on Monday evening as he announced the formation of the opposition group, dubbed “the Freedom Movement of the Sons of the Arabian Peninsula,” Arabic-language al-Khaleej Online news website reported.

“The regime of King Salman hastened to work on the collapse of the kingdom when it...appointed Mohammed bin Salman as the crown Prince,” the 41-year-old dissident Saudi prince added.

He highlighted that the Saudi monarch and his son have seriously damaged the country’s prestige and reputation at international, Muslim and Arab levels, arguing that they both have sought “to change the status quo of the Two Holy Mosques for worse and to the benefit of others.”

Prince Khaled went on to say that Saudi Arabia, during the reign of King Salman and his crown prince, has become a vassal state to Zionist dwarfs, arguing that the Saudi ruler is “wasting state resources uncontrollably, and in a provocative way.”

He then pointed to the “increasing dictatorship of the Saudi political system,” stating that the ruling Riyadh regime has “tortured dissidents by all the means that are prohibited by the international law.”

“Bin Salman assaulted his cousins, put them behind bars, discredited them and prevented members of the ruling family – the House of Saud – from traveling. Mohammed bin Salman attacked leading businessmen in the kingdom, prompting the flight of capital,” Prince Khaled said.

He added that the Saudi crown prince was behind the increase of arms purchases by the kingdom over the past three years, equal to more than 112% or about one third of the country’s general budget, noting that “serious military failures in the era of Mohammed bin Salman are not commensurate with the volume of military expenditures.”

Defeat in Yemen

Elsewhere in his remarks, Prince Khaled pointed to Saudi Arabia’s military campaign against its impoverished southern neighbor, saying, “The main reason for the defeat in Yemen is because the military doctrine of the army does not accept the legitimacy of this war.”

He said the Saudi crown prince has “placed the kingdom under a real and serious security threat by invading Yemen unjustly.”

The exiled Saudi prince concluded that his movement will strive to “establish a constitutional monarchy in Saudi Arabia, organize elections to appoint a prime minister and a government, dislodge current officials and fight against human rights violations and injustice in the country.”

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