Center for Democracy and Human Rights in Saudi Arabia, CDHR, Washington DC

May 6, 2021

CDHR’s Analysis and Commentaries

Is MBS Unfurling the Coronation Carpet?

CDHR Analysis: In self-aggrandizing and carefully measured answers in this eclectic interview, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) seems to be preparing the population, other diehard Muslims and the international community for his imminent ascendance to the throne. After he reviewed and gloated over his economic and social initiative accomplishments, he pledged that under his rule there will be no deviation from the way the country has been ruled since its establishment in 1932.

When asked whether there would be a governing moderation under his rule, he disqualified himself from defining moderation, but declared his unflinching commitment to adhere to his family’s 300-year-old sectarian system. "Our constitution is the Quran which will last forever. The Basic Law of Governance stipulates it very clearly.” The 1992 Basic Law underscored the Saudi family’s eternal rule: “Rulers of the country shall be from amongst the sons of the founder King Abdu laziz bin Abdulrahman Al-Faisal Al-Saud, and their descendants.” In other words, the country is and will always remain a royal property. Read more: www.cdhr.info 

Saudi and Persian Monocrats: Common Values and Objectives

CDHR Analysis: As stated here, the Saudi and Persian rulers are embarking on fence-mending after their competitive policies of death and destruction in Syria, Yemen and Iraq (among other places) did not achieve their regional supremacy objectives.

After decades of demonizing and delegitimizing each other, the two like-minded autocratic rulers of Iran and Saudi Arabia may have realized that neither of them will be allowed (by their global superpower beneficiaries)  to dominate the other or the Arab and Muslim states, some of which they have reduced to ashes, wreaked major population dislocations, calamitous starvation and mounds of bodies. Read more: www.cdhr.info

47 Saudi Women Ushered in an Irreversible Movement

CDHR Commentary: 31 years ago, five years prior to the historic Beijing Fourth World Conference Declaration on Women in 1995, 47 Saudi women began the most consequential women’s movement in Saudi Arabia. They planned a flawless behind the wheel ride for which they paid a high price. They took their spouses’ car keys on November 26, 1990, and drove around the dusty Saudi capital, Riyadh, for half an hour before they were overwhelmed by the ubiquitous Saudi security forces. They defied the misogynistic state’s institutionalized discriminatory ban on women’s right to drive at a brutal cost to themselves and their families. “The women paid heavily for their actions — all the drivers, and their husbands, were barred from foreign travel for a year. Those women who had government jobs were fired. And from hundreds of mosque pulpits, they were denounced by name as immoral women out to destroy Saudi society.” The character assassination and unfounded vulgarity are some of the damning and medieval tools the autocratic Saudi political and religious authorities have used to incite segments of society against each other for decades. Read more: www.cdhr.info

Ending Support for the Destruction of Yemen is Commendable First Step

CDHR Commentary: President Biden’s announcement on Jan. 4, 2021, to end U.S. support for the Saudi/Emirati oligarchies’ “offensive” war in Yemen after their coalition pulverized that country and subjugated its resilient society to unspeakable human misery is commendable. However, the devastation of what remains of Yemen’s infrastructure, its sources of food and water and the suffering of its 26 million people will likel y continue, unless the Saudis and Emiratis are obligated to pay for the rebuilding of what they destroyed, especially the sources of food, water, electricity, roads, and health facilities.

When the Saudi/Emirati-led coalition invaded Yemen in 2015, the Yemenis were in the midst of a civil war which morphed into a proxy war between autocratic Saudi/Emirati and theocratic Persian regimes, which have been vying for regional domination for years. Ending the calamitous Yemen war and reconstructing the extensive damage it has caused to Yemen, its people and to the forgotten Saudi citizens along the 800 mile Saudi/Yemeni border will not only give people a chance to resume a normal existence, but is in the best interest of the U .S.’s and the international community’s economic and national security. It will minimize the rise and spread of a new generation of recruits for local and foreign governments and for extremist groups, like Al-Qaeda, Jama’ah Islamiyah and ISIS, among others. Read more: www.cdhr.info 

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