In 2017, a young prince rose to power as the ruler of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Third in line to the throne in the House of Saud, the prince’s turn came before his time. However, it was a plan laid out strategically to fall into place by the prince’s future counterpart, Abu Dhabi crown prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
All MBZ said to MBS at a meeting was, “you have to start building new alliances, and you need to pivot to China and Russia,” and the fate of Saudi was changed for ever.
Ever since catching hold of the throne, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia did as he pleased, becoming one of the most controversial leaders so far. Nevertheless, it is what the MbZ MbS coalition did back in 2015 that laid the foundation stone to their toxic alliance in the future. From motivating the secret intervention of Russia in Syrian civil war under MbZ’s instructionsbre to the attempted assassination of Saad AlJabri; Prince Mohammed has come a long way.
Russia in Syria and Saad AlJabri
The ex-spy chief, Saad AlJabri caused an instant stir when he filed a lawsuit against the crown prince of Saudi Arabia in the District of Columbia district court.
The lawsuit claimed that the former CIA director John Brennan, who was close to the ex-spy chief of Saudi, was concerned that Mohammed bin Salman pushed Russia in Syria war, while it wasn’t officially a party in it.
AlJabri shared this intel with Brennan, who got concerned about Prince Salman decision towards Syria. However, the news of Brennan’s concern wasn’t received very well by the latter, who in turn got furious. Fearing the consequences, AlJabri quit his job and fled to Canada under a self-imposed exile, hiding from the infuriated prince.
In the background, the then defense minister was reportedly being guided by a friend and future counterpart in the emirates, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, Mohammed bin Zayed.
MBZ MBS Alliance
International media has reiterated it several times that the most powerful Arab leader is not Saudi’s Mohammed bin Salman, but Abu Dhabi crown prince Mohammed bin Zayed.
In a recent explosive expose, The Guardian told the same story, but more specifically. According to a source with knowledge about the matter, the Saudi leader’s UAE counterpart, Prince Mohammed bin Zayed, popularly known as, MbZ, met him at the 2015 Idex arms fair in Abu Dhabi.
During the meet, MbS was well informed by MbZ that before succession to the throne, he must look for alliance elsewhere as Barack Obama-led administration was more aligned to the then crown prince, Mohammed bin Nayef, and his advisor and intelligence chief, Saad AlJabri.
The meeting is considered the turning point of the relation shared by the two powerful Gulf leaders of today’s time. The source claimed that MBS was told under the UAE Saudi alliance that dealing with the growing influence and revolution of Muslim Brotherhood in Syrian civil war was more crucial than tackling the fall of Syrian President Bashar al Assad.
MBZ MBS took charge of Syria’s stabilization soon after the beginning of their intervention in Yemeni civil war in March 2015. Establishment of Russia in Syria began after the House of Saud elect was motivated by UAE MBZ to initiate the process for. The confirmation of the same was recently made by Hassan Hassan, director of the non-state actors program at the Center for Global Policy in Washington. Hassan said, “When I read Aljabri’s claim about MBS asking Russia to intervene in Syria, that immediately made sense to me, considering the conversations I heard in 2015 and 2017.”
While Russia got into Syrian civil war against US, UAE was aiming at something else. MBZ MBS alliance was aiming to establish Russia to reclaim control of the country from the inciting influence of Muslim Brotherhood, an alleged extremist group, which identifies itself as a transnational Sunni Islamist organization leading the Islamic revivalist movement in the Middle East.
So, while the Saudi prince MBS was backing the anti-Assad rebels, it was also backing Russia in Syria, which bombed rebel-held cities in Assad’s support, both claiming the lives of thousands of innocent Syrian civilians in the process.
