SAUDI Prince Mohammed Bin Salman forged his father’s signature to launch the country’s invasion of Yemen, a new show claims.
The Kingdom’s 2015 intervention into the Yemeni Civil War is widely viewed as part of a proxy way between it and Iran.
The brutal conflict, now a decade old, has killed hundreds of thousands and left millions more on the brink of starvation.
A former adviser to the previous heir claims Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) forged the decree to send troops.
Muhammad bin Nayef (MBN) was the heir from 2015 to 2017, before King Salman appointed his own son MBS as to succeed him.
Now, MBN’s former adviser Saad Al-Jabri has make the shocking claim about MBS in a new documentary.
He told the BBC Two documentary, The Kingdom: The World’s Most Powerful Prince that MBN didn’t want to send in troops.
Al-Jabri said: “We started the war in March [2015] and MBS was pushing towards ground intervention.
“MBN – who was crown prince – said no. Our army was not tested and we do not think that they will do a job.
“So MBN issued a decree by the King to prevent any ground interventions.
“Later on, we were surprised that there was a royal decree to allow the ground interventions.”
But Al-Jabri says the decree was signed by MBS and not by King Salman, who held the kingly authority.
Al-Jabri claims: “We heard from some people around MBS that he forged a signature of his dad for that royal decree.”
He states in the BBC doc that his source is “credible, and reliable”.
Al-Jabri is now an exile and lives in Canada after fleeing the country in 2017.
He is a fierce critic of MBS and Saudi Arabia and is the most senior official to have fled the country.
Al-Jabri even claims the Saudi government has tried to assassinate him.
Al-Jabri had served the Saudi state for 40 years, reaching the rank of major-general.
He’s credited by the heads of the CIA and MI6 as helping foil Al Qaeda terrorist plots, saving British and American lives.
Former MI6 chief Sir John Sawers tells the doc that he doesn’t know whether MBS forged the signature.
But he said: “It is clear that this was MBS’ decision to intervene militarily in Yemen.
“It wasn’t his father’s decision, although his father was carried along with it.”
The brutal Yemeni Civil War has been exacerbated by the proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran, with each of the countries backing a side.
The UN has estimated 377,000 civilians have been killed and four and a half million displaced.
The UN has described it as one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world.
The new two-part series airs tonight on BBC Two at 9pm.
It tells the inside story of MBS’s extraordinary rise to power, and his ruthless determination to stay at the top.
The show hears from friends and advisers, Western spies and diplomats who have seen him up close, and from those who were in the inner circles of Saudi power.
It reveals how MBS outwitted rivals – both inside and outside the Kingdom – with a combination of ambition, brains, and ruthlessness.
The series gives insight into how MBS allegedly threatened MBN with blackmail over an alleged addiction to pain killing drugs so he could take his place.
Sawers tells the BBC Two documentary: “Muhammad bin Nayef was summoned to the King’s presence at the palace.
“He went there with his usual retinue of security aides and one or two advisers.
“He was told at the door that those people were not welcome. They were kept out.
It wasn’t his father’s decision, although his father was carried along with it
Saad Al-Jabri
“He was presented with a fait accompli really, a deal, so to speak, by MBS that he, MBN, was no longer going to be crown prince. And he had to sign away his powers.”
MBN is reported to have refused the deal.
He was then left on his own overnight, and threatened.
MBN was told that unless he agreed to stand down, his alleged addiction to pain-killing drugs would be made public.
Since then, the prince has been arrested by MBS and even been tortured and put into solitary confinement, reports claim.
Bernard Haykel, a professor at Princetown University and confidant of MBS, adds: “He was effectively told that if he didn’t do this willingly, there would be consequences to him.
“He could do this either through a formal kind of way, or it could be done in a way that would be, again, deeply troubling and embarrassing for him.”
Sawers says MBN was “left on his own until he gave in” and was “cut off from all his usual support which led him to feel that he had no option but to cave in.”
Haykel said: “MBS may have plotted and spoken to his father, explaining the situation that MBN was a drug addict and he was able to convince the King that this man needed to be replaced.”
MBN stood down as crown prince and MBS took over. With his father King Salman in declining health, MBS effectively became leader of the country.
MBS has been approached for comment.
