Saudi King Dismisses Yemen War General on Corruption Suspicions

Vivian Nereim

01 Sep 2020, 03:45 PM IST

(Bloomberg) --

Saudi Arabia’s King Salman dismissed the commander of Saudi-led forces in Yemen and several other Defense Ministry employees on suspicion of corruption.

Lieutenant General Prince Fahad bin Turki, a grandson of Saudi Arabia’s founding King Abdulaziz, was ordered to retire, according to a royal order published Tuesday by the official Saudi Press Agency. His son, Prince Abdulaziz bin Fahad bin Turki, was also removed from his post as deputy governor of the northern region of Al-Jawf.

They and other dismissed Defense Ministry officials were placed under investigation after Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who leads the ministry, noticed “suspicious financial transactions,” the order said, without providing details.

The announcement is likely to fuel speculation about potential trouble at the ministry and in the royal family, a sprawling clan of thousands of princes divided between supporters and private critics of Prince Mohammed. Since his swift rise to power several years ago, the 35-year-old son of King Salman has led a major social and economic transformation alongside a political crackdown, including a controversial anti-corruption campaign in which hundreds of the kingdom’s richest men were detained in 2017.

Supporters called the anti-graft campaign long overdue in a country where corruption and nepotism are rife. Critics said the prince sometimes used corruption allegations to settle political scores and neutralize potential opponents.

Prince Fahad was replaced by Lieutenant General Mutlaq bin Salim Al-Azema’a, at Prince Mohammed’s recommendation.

Fahad had led the kingdom’s military campaign in Yemen since 2018. The war, originally conceived as a quick way to put down a rebellion by Iran-aligned Houthis, is in its sixth year and has devolved into one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters.

In a statement on Twitter, Mohammed Ali Al-Houthi, a member of the Houthi ruling political council, said the commander’s dismissal “is good, if it will stop the war.”