To fit in their message the Company Announced the changes which are Effective Immediately the two hundred eighty characters will be available in most languages those are the headlines news continues here and on his ear after inside story keep it here thanks for your time. Some say hes in a rush to take power from his father others argue mohamad been so money is on a path to reform saudi arabia but what risks is the crown prince running and kenny meet the many challenges he faces both at home and in the region this is inside story. With. With. Their welcome to the program im jane dothan the erased in saudi arabia have spurred days of speculation and analysis there was the element of surprise the detentions took place on saturday night and without warning the elements of power most of those arrested men of influence and an element of uncertainty is this about purging corruption or consolidating power the man behind it all drawn Prince Mohammed bin salma on has been a figure of controversy for months now hes regarded as a progressive leader touting social and Economic Reforms but critics say m. B. A. s as hes known is also a power hungry over the course of two years he went from being third in line to the throne to first so what are those arrests all about the detained individual spy on a range of sectors in Saudi Society eleven princes and several ministers were taken into custody on saturday night beside a government says theyre all implicated in corruption and the assets have been frozen. And prince or waleed bin talal is perhaps the most well known name on the list hes the richest man in the arab world with stakes in Major Companies like apple news corps and twitter a deal for kay was also arrested as the economy minister he was behind large social reforms to reduce saudi reliance on oil and prince mittal been a dollar was detained he was the head of saudis National Guard with tabs arrest gives Prince Mohammed more direct control over the countrys gods he ready controls the defense and interior ministries Prince Mohammed has surprised many by pushing back against saudi arabias religious elite in two thousand and sixteen and took steps to rein in the countrys religious police they have been back on the streets since june but are reportedly less vigorous about their chastising n. B. S. Also allowed agenda make celebration of Saudi National day in september despite a backlash from religious clerics and two weeks ago said saudi arabia must return to a quote moderate balanced islam that is open to the world and to all religions lets bring in our guests joining us in beirut Joseph Kitchen a middle east analyst and senior fellow at the King Faisal Center for research and islamic studies in london and theres craig assistant professor at the Defense Studies Department at Kings College london and also in beirut nicholas know editor in chief of mideast wired dot com good to see all three of you Joseph Kitchen let me start off with you a staggering couple of days have passed im just wondering what we are in the middle of witnessing whats happened we are witnessing tremendous changes system of government of saudi arabia we have a new leadership that has been in place for about two years now but obviously considered ational power. On the part of the heir apparent been sent a man who is determined to push forward with his very complicated economic political and social agendas so therefore what we are seeing what we are witnessing is the implementation of the plans that he has presumably thought through for the past several months im not surprised by the changes that have taken place ive been expecting them and to be honest with you im expecting a lot more in the next space and a lot more but not from the l solomon ranch i suspect its difficult to know exactly how the response to the dramatic changes are going to be but presumably be the disputes that exist within the contrary have nothing to do with the leadership itself because the heir apparent is there and when there is a succession when the time comes for Succession Process i dont think that there will be much a debate debate or dispute about the fact that mohammed bin segment will become the next ruler the question is what kind of ruler hes going to be easy going to be a just prince or is he going to be someone who will push everyone around i am betting on the fact that he might be if very good just prints but time will tell under his care what do you think weve just witnessed is this a case of reform as put forward by the prince or we just seeing a consolidation of power the question mark i mean most of the analysts are quite you know in doubt whether this is one or the other i mean its a bit of both i think on the one hand i think obama been sort of man knows that if he wants to bring if you want to say saudi arabia you want to save this failing rentiers state of saudi arabia he would have to make threat wresting changes and that was clear from the onset when his father took over to have his ago and in order to achieve this he has to do this radically i mean its a complete rip its a revolution its not just reform i think we talk about revolution and revolutions usually. Need to have a certain degree of course of ms in there has to be conversion there cant be always consensual specially in a system like saudi arabia so it was it was clear that in order to transform this country and bring this into the twenty First Century some people had to be chopped off and weve seen that already with benign have over the summer and you know more and more people to follow prince for example was another one that was on the list what is now a little bit surprising is that we have people like. Prince tell our being on the list as well so p. And a lot of businessman people who have control over money in saudi arabia do you think thats a message that no you know this is a your hair you either sit in or this is what we do with you yes i think there is the message is no one is exempt from it but then the question is why is the cylon branch not exempt from it there is no doubt that saudi arabia is and one of the biggest flaws of saudi arabia is that it is one of the most corrupt rented systems in the gulf a no go of that the rent a state in itself is by western standards a corrupt system so how can you go around and say were going to chop this head but were going to leave this one in power you know if you spend one hundred Million Dollars and more on a on a Summer Holiday in morocco or six hundred Million Dollars on a private yard as as the king and his crown prince have done over the summer so i mean this is there is some sort of inconsistency here with the implication of the term. Corruption and i think its it is more about consolidation over political power economic power and military power of the Security Sector at large because this is what the rest of metal was all about its about controlling the entire Security Sector of saudi Arabia Nicholas no i mean really is the stuff of movies isnt i mean that dramatic a helicopter is missing missing people swoop of princes it doesnt matter who you are jailed in the ritz carlton i mean how has this been viewed from where you are how important i would say step it actually steps. Are you witnessing well im here in Beirut Lebanon and i think its probably best to have lebanese answer how theyre viewing it i can speak at least on the part of american and european officials that ive spoken to here and elsewhere and back home in the u. S. There is a great degree of concern that the crown prince together with key actors especially in my own government in the American Government have unleashed a series of forces that go way beyond what can be kind of planned out like a nice kind of you know chess game or Something Like that there are a series of contingencies and huge dangerous forces that are now shaping and reshaping interests and actions that may or may not be taken by Different Actors thats the real danger here in that we have a very complicated Security Architecture of the middle east that has been under tremendous strain and threat indeed for many of us we see it as basically breaking and broken and the idea of adding yet another layer of incredible new stresses with outcomes that none of us can can can pretend to really understand and to map out this is incredibly dangerous moment and thats why i would disagree with your your first speaker perhaps was not surprised by these events perhaps he wasnt but id say in this next stage its going to be incredibly difficult for any of us to try and guess what is going to happen we are in a real period of unknown contingent possibilities and i know at least on the u. S. Government side that is tremendously worrying to folks but a lot of people are worried for example just about the leadership of our president in this matter who has apparently wholeheartedly supported the crown princes actions and who even deemed the people that have been arrested as being guilty essentially of having quote unquote milked the cow for too long so there is concern within the u. S. Government and especially among u. S. And european observers that we are in in credit. Dangerous period that was thats even more dangerous than all of the different dangers that have been piling up in the middle east for the last few years and yes i do agree i completely agree with that i mean that the middle east has been on fire and whereas weve seen with the with the cover crisis already that was adding another layer you know the goal of was always a center of stability in recent years you know of Financial Stability some sort of political stability and they were able to act as a center of gravity as well of all the other conflicts and now were creating conflict in the gulf and the strongest arab country still is saudi arabia at least financially and now were having instability and uncertainty in saudi arabia as well and that has a Ripple Effect on all the other conflicts in the region and i think we have to see this within the context of whats going on in the goal of more widely i mean reformist taken place in all of the gulf countries most of the time consensually as in qatar more or less consensually in the u. A. E. But also quite radical in the u. A. E. And now absolutely revolutionary in saudi arabia and i think what amount of insulin is trying to do is trying to emulate mama bin zeid push for centralized power in the United Arab Emirates that weve seen over the last decade and hes trying to do this not over a decade but hes trying to do that within a few months in a system that is a lot more backwards than the United Arab Emirates so the measure a little bit dangerous more as their nets and joseph so not as positive as you. In the stuff all in this package and this outcome whatever you want to call it i do not deny that we are in dangerous times and that serious concerns must be expressed in whats going on but lets not exaggerate and lets not go on hyperboles left and right the end of the world has not started there is not going to be war three tomorrow so i think its important for people to realize that there are dramatic transformations underway. We want to call a consolidation of power we want to call it fighting corruption we want to call it or evolutionary step i have no problem with any of those things but i am not surprised that these things are occurring simply because of what is going on and i would like to basically say that a very responsive very simple in a simple way that even doherty and sandman may be exempted from this particular. Chain of events that occurred during the past several days we dont know whether or not this will continue whether there will be other members of the family who will be involved were talking about an absolute monarchy where there is a new leadership in place and they are determined to go ahead and implement what they perceive to be their vision this is going to rattle a lot of people people are going to be upset with it there is no question about that but at the same time i think that its really on what some of been so mad as the heir apparent to show whether he can and will head and do all these things if you want to call it hes revolution whether he can beat him of the regional leader without emulating the revolution that occurred in iran in ninety seven to you know are going to hang on us was making this is dying sense i mean it is that this is this is this is absolutely absurd that a thirty two year old billionaire has the right to destroy lives in this part of the world ok this is the first thought this is absurd on its face second of all it is absent. Lewdly our responsibility right now to sound the alarm ok we are all im an american citizen here in lebanon and my lebanese friends who some of them hate on it some of them hate saudi arabia they are deathly scared for their childrens safety and for their safety so no it is absolutely the right time to raise the alarm and say the forces that are being unleashed are tremendous they are dangerous and they could lead to further death and destruction in a part of the world that cannot bear it anymore so no i think it is absolutely our responsibility right now is to raise the alarm maybe not World War Three but this is going to asterisk all of us sorry i just agreed. I just want you risk so what. Showing what things are going to look like weve decided what we saw a lot of it i really like ok ok gentlemen lets lets agree to disagree lets agree to disagree on this point nicholas groschen in our nicholas wrote in iran id just like to talk about saudi arabia and the the growing impact of what its done its also been in the news this week obviously for its international influence the lebanese Prime Minister saad hariri abruptly resigned on saturday afternoon just hours before the saudi arrest he did so in riyadh which immediately raised questions about saudis involvement hariri said he was stepping down partially because of irans influence in the region hezbollah leaders in lebanon say saudi arabia forced him to cite this reason if true that would tie in to saudis growing animosity with iran riyadh recently accused iran of helping he sees in yemen file a rocket toward saudi arabia as part of its anti iran agenda saudi arabia has also strengthen ties with israel in recent days that in turn brings it closer to the west and in particular the u. S. President donald trump tweeted his support for the saudi arrest saying the detained princes had been his words milking the country for years but anders id like to go back to iran how much of this has got to do with irans growing influence i mean its come out pretty well from the wars in iraq and syria and how much of that has niggled what is happening in saudi arabia at the moment if we take a more regional approach to this rather than looking internally in saudi arabia then obviously saudi arabia as a kingdom in what it was to assume leadership since someone came into power in twenty fifteen he want to reassure the arab leadership over the middle east because of the the persian leadership of iran and i think this is very important he wants to work he wants saudi arabia wants to be the ball work against iranian expansionism and they see it as a see this as a threat been so long in particular sees this as a huge threat hes paranoid about irans influence in iraq thats why hes reaching out to even. The shias in iraq who are anti anti iranian is trying to consolidate power in lebanon thereby working under the table with the israelis to trigger something and against hezbollah is working as the who these in yemen so this is very much about expansionism it but he wants to strengthen the kingdom make the kingdom more robust and i think this is how it all fits in with the us foreign and Security Policy in the region as well donald trump relies on saudi arabia as the most important policeman in the middle east and not just in the arab world in the middle east and you know the u. S. Administration is very much also. Embracing this kind of these paranoia driven by these paranoias about iran and so they are one saudi arabia to be strong to make Decisive Actions take Decisive Action to take over responsibility in a way that saudi hasnt done for the last decade or even longer and that created the kind of void that the iranians were able to fill in yemen in iraq in syria and in lebanon and but the problem is now is this really for this you need to have a stable leadership and im not sure whether these internal problems of the saudi will create a more stable more sustainable leadership in the kingdom or whether that this will actually throw the kingdom into more of a state of disarray that will eventually have Ripple Effects on on on on partners in the region because saudi cannot assume that leadership because in the parliament will decide if he doesnt really have resulted in a lot of reality politic jets of his friend the net very wide has any both within the country and outside of the country. What is he playing at when it comes to saad hariri whats he. Made him do his resignation and how does that play out in trying to take control of iran will try to get up ahead when it comes to iran we have had turmoil in the middle east really for a long period of time and decided your reaction to the iranian age and want to influence in the region is going to be natural this is part of the large larger sunni shiite confrontation thats been going on for decades if not longer it will unravel over the next several years and decades as well from the saudi perspective as we just heard a moment and i agree there is what is what is really the onus on saudi arabia is to assume the burden that in fact iran is not going to have the free for all to do whatever it wants and out of well it should not interfere into internal affairs of that of countries you just really something thats been happening in lebanon as well groups you know that with the rise of hezbollah and with with seen it with a lot of different other places and the arab world however i keep coming back to the fact that some of that sentiment as the heir apparent has sex with you know responsibility not only to respond and to be determined and to have reforms in the country but he has to portray the image of being a just prince if in fact he overplays his hand there is always the danger that he will make tremendous mistakes not only his country will pay for it but everybody else will pay for it the question is whether he has the wisdom to actually take into account the different points of views with him to Saudi Society i think he does time will tell whether i mean his restaurant policy record is nothing too promising to go by is it if you if you look at what hes done in yemen and the gulf blockade but i just put this to you now because i mean youre talking about how petrified people are there in beirut in lebanon about whats happening at the moment. How do you think this will play out there when it comes to hillary and his role in what he is just done in stepping down where this leaves hezbollah or will it be drawing in israel what is the scenario thats been set up here well i mean you know kind of pulling back from street level view of whats happening here in lebanon which is perhaps not so much for me to say at least in the architecture of the immediate architecture around eleven on this incredible new layer of destabilization to what is already has been for several months if not a year or more looking like a kind of slide towards confrontation possibly involving hezbollah and israel thats one of the great fears among analysts external officials and also many lebanese that you talk to as well this could add another layer that pushes that kind of confrontation theres a great argument about this right now as to whether or not these actions kind of hurt that march to war slide to war or actually make stem it the sad thing and the dangerous thing is that you know a lot of this is in the hands of hopefully what joseph hopes is is a kind of in lightened prints which is not only anachronistic but is also incredibly dangerous given that the consolidation of so much power so much ability to disrupt Different Countries and peoples lives is in the hands of one man and possibly maybe jared questioner and donald trump thats inherently dangerous not only as an anti democratic but i would argue that thats inherently dangerous especially for this brand of saudi leadership so right now we stand on the edge of really possibly having a whole new series of confrontations i mean for gods sakes the saudi arabia has more or less declared war on lebanon and hezbollah more or less said that. You know iran is now kind of has given them a causes bella for example by the firing of rockets from yemen via the who thiis were in very complicated and dangerous territories and i apologize to joseph for getting upset before but you know really when this resignation that youre invading with it because it was it was shocking to people even people that just absolutely hate iran i mean people are friends were going to the Grocery Store here to buy you know food because they thought the war was coming right then and there thats the degree of concern thats on the street and i think its always going slow you can see here how an underling to dress says affects people on the street because surely you know one would hope that politicians are doing what is best for those eleven the country jazz if you want to say some of it up in. You know what i was going to say i also happen to live most of my time in lebanon and you just you just heard an absurd declaration that somehow it is saudi arabia thats declared war on lebanon whereas we have now been listening for the past ten years just under some of the head of limbus think saudi arabia on an afternoon basis blaming saudi arabia for everything under the sun and lets remind our viewers that there are five hundred thousand lebanese who are working in the gulf war benefiting and repair creating eight billion dollars per year good to see economy that will be destroyed without that kind of stuff and just not just as you said he may think i know i know scuse me jumping in here but we are running out of time i know that the prince has got a lot of support in the country as well for doing what hes doing you know particularly amongst the youth but hes taken quite a gamble hasnt he because its either he wins or he loses and if he loses he loses big and the briefing from all three of you i mean this is absolutely right there is no plan b. Mohamed been so man must succeed its vision twenty thirty project is for for saving the kingdom for the future and i think that he is determined to go ahead and do this but again i repeat the onus is on him to prove that he has the mettle he has the mantle to actually rule as a just prince and not as a dictator and just this really is high risk isnt it i mean its do or die for him is an absolutely i mean he either becomes the most powerful man in the middle east or he will fail and in some jail after a coup detat but i do think initially i think most of the and the big power game is between two centers one is the old center of power the old elites which are now really looking over their shoulder being paranoid and the young generation the young generation that feels left out in saudi arabia unemployed not really having part of being part of this and they obviously chair they say this is a great this is a Great Development but these young people dont have the kind of monetary or political all. Security related power to actually pull the strings and these are this is the older generation so this is a huge risk here and i think if venture if he doesnt succeed hell be in some jail somewhere and you know saudi will break apart so yeah im afraid were going to have to leave it there and just create with his final comments thank you as well to Joseph Kitchen and nicholas. And thank you too for watching you can see the program again any time by visiting our website aljazeera dot com for further discussion go to our Facebook Page at facebook dot com for slash a. J. Inside story can also join the conversation on twitter i had liz at a. J. And sad story for me. Miss the t. V. About. You and. News has never been more available its a constant barrage of it with every day but the message is a simplistic you have the brain a good logical rational oberth crazy monster and misinformation is rife dismissal and denial of well documented accusations and evidence is part of genocide the listening post provides a critical counterpoint trying to bring Mainstream Media narratives of this time on aljazeera. Is quiet the signal is given. Out yet so its safe to walk to school last year there are more than thirty metres in this community in one month the police say this area is a red zone one of several in some townships and children sometimes a court in the crossfire would rival gangs fight the parents and grandparents have started what they call a walking us to try to take a while i lost my family looking away lived or years ago i also lost my but there are more than one hundred fifty volunteers working for several walking busses teachers say it is working class attendance has improved the volunteers also act as security guards to be a child is to be innocent and carefree but it comes to an abrupt end with the burden of younger children. With a mother behind bars for siblings must spend for each other and decide whether to stick together. With the family in the hope of a chance across the Us Mexico Border the other side of the border a witness documentary at this time out is era. Im Richelle Carey in doha lets take a look at the top stories on aljazeera the u. S. Is calling on the United Nations to act against iran over the firing of rockets from yemen into saudi arabia
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