Alwaght- Sources close to Saudi Royal family that the kingdom's former crown prince was ousted because of his drug addiction.
Reuters cited a source close to the Al Saud as saying, Mohammed bin Nayef was stripped of his positions, crown prince and as interior minister, by the royal family because he was incapacitated by morphine and cocaine addiction, often falling asleep at public events after he became crown prince in 2015.
His addiction was a legacy of an a- Qaeda assassination attempt in 2009 that left shrapnel in his body.
"Mohammad bin Nayef has a lot of respect among us as a crown prince and as interior minister but there are higher interests for the state which are more important than social position or status," the source told Reuters.
However many believe the story of the prince's drug problems, circulated by anonymous sources, was used only a pretext to speed up the elevation of Mohammed bin Salman, the king's 32-year-old son, to be next in line to the throne.
Reuters said that bin Salman had been using his relationship with his king father “to reorder the top jobs in the political, oil, security, security and intelligence sectors, often without the knowledge” of bin Nayef.
Saudi Arabia’s ailing 81-year-old King Salman (seen below) has been reportedly suffering from partial dementia and is said to be contemplating an abdication in favor of his son.
Since his ouster, bin Nayef has reportedly been under house arrest. He has seen his security guards changed and has not been allowed to receive visitors except close family members, according to sources close to him.
One such source said earlier that bin Nayef had wanted to take his family to Switzerland or the United Kingdom, but the king and his son had decided that he had to stay. “He wasn’t given any choice,” the source said.
Accounts emerged recently that bin Nayef had been pressured overnight to end his claim to the throne, which he did under duress. He later appeared in footage pledging allegiance to the new crown prince.
'Coup' at midnight in the Arabian Desert
Speaking to Reuters, sources said that bin Nayef had been “usurped” by the “often impulsive” Mohammed bin Salman, saying he had not expected to be removed in such a manner.
Bin Nayef reportedly believed that bin Salman had “made a number of policy blunders, such as his handling of the Yemen conflict and cutting financial benefits to civil servants.”
As Saudi Arabia’s defense minister, bin Salman is believed to have been largely responsible for the disastrous invasion of Yemen, where high civilian casualties and a cholera epidemic have raised international alarm.
