London: Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the heir to the Saudi Arabian throne, has reportedly kept his own mother away from his father, the king, out of fear she would stand in the way of his rapid rise to power. The prince has prevented Princess Fahda bint Falah al-Hathleen, his mother, from seeing King Salman for more than two years. At one point, she may even have been held under house arrest at a royal palace, NBC News reported, citing 14 current and former US intelligence officials. Saudi Arabia's government strongly denied the claim.
Little is known about Fahda, the king's third wife, and as with most Saudi royal women she is not seen in public. According to NBC, the crown prince provided his father with several reasons why he could not see his mother.
On a visit to the White House in 2015, the elderly 82-year-old king apparently mistakenly told Barack Obama, then the president, that his wife was receiving medical treatment in New York, contrary to US intelligence that she was not in the country. A spokesman for the Saudi embassy in Washington said the claim was "absolutely not true".
Sources said that Fahda fears her son's power grab is dividing the Saudi royal family. Ahead of his first official visit as crown prince to Washington soon, Mohammed warned that Saudi Arabia would develop its own nuclear weapons if Iran was allowed to build a nuclear bomb. "Saudi Arabia does not want to acquire any nuclear bomb but without a doubt, if Iran developed a nuclear bomb we would follow suit as soon as possible," the 32-year-old prince said.
Fears of a nuclear arms race between Iran and Saudi Arabia are growing once again as the Iran nuclear deal comes under increasing pressure and after Riyadh announced it was pursuing a civilian nuclear energy program. Donald Trump has threatened to pull the US out of the 2015 nuclear accord unless it is significantly tightened and expanded to cover areas which were not in the original agreement. Mike Pompeo, Trump's choice to be the new US secretary of state, also takes a hawkish stance on Iran and is far less conciliatory than his predecessor, Rex Tillerson. Iran warned it would resume enriching uranium if the US pulled out of the deal and reimposed severe sanctions.
