A Blog by the Editor of The Middle East Journal

Putting Middle Eastern Events in Cultural and Historical Context

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

The King and the Prince; More on the Bombing

An Al-Arabiyya clip of the meeting of King ‘Abdullah and Prince Muhammad bin Nayef after the latter survived the assassination attempt is now up at YouTube. For those who know Arabic it's mostly expressions of gratitude to God for his survival (about half of each man's conversation seems to consist of al-hamdu li-llah), but perhaps of some interest:



Otherwise, more details continue to come out. Today's Daily Star reports that the Prince was on the phone to another terrorist in Yemen, reassuring him it was safe to enter the Kingdom, when the bomb went off. The Saudi Gazette prints a transcript of excerpts from a telephone call between the Prince and the attacker Asiri, prior to the meeting I gather.

Meanwhile, Yemen has rounded up the usual suspects.

Al-Sharq al-Awsat has some gory pictures of the aftermath of the bomb (not for the squeamish or, well, even the non-squeamish. You've been warned. Remember he's supposed to have concealed the bomb in a body cavity.) Meanwhile their English website has a lengthy profile of Prince Muhammad bin Nayef and his role.

3 comments:

LJ Marczak said...

On a related note, the Saudi MOI announced that Fawwaz Al-'Utayby #65 on the list of 85 terrorists had surrendered himself earlier this week.

http://www.alriyadh.com/2009/09/03/article456877.html

http://international.daralhayat.com/internationalarticle/53120

While both articles mention that he was permitted to perform 'Umrah on his return, Hayat has some interesting further info.

(1) An allegded Iranian connection -- prior to his return he had been in Iran for about a year where he went to join elements of AQ.

(2) The names of some other terrorists who have surrendered recently.

(3)And new MOI orders on transport.
The MOI has issued instructions to citizens and transport companies about transporting those claiming to be on 'Umrah. Transport is only allowed of such individuals between Mecca, Madina and Jeddah and only during the period of the validity of those persons' visas. Penalties for failure to adhere to the regulation are imprisonment of up to two years and/or a fine not to exceed SR100 thousand.

Penalties for transporting passengers in and out of the Kingdom at unauthorized or unofficial border crossing points are (a) 7 days to 30 months and/or (b) SR300 to SR25,000.

LJ Marczak said...

And on a related note to Saudi, Al-Watan reports two royal decrees effective 13 Ramadan.

(1) Four year extension of Amir Bandar Bin Sultan as Head of National Security Council with the rank of minister.

(2) Four year extension of S'ad Bin Nasir As-Sudairy as Advisor to the Minister of Interior with a "mumtaz" rank. (Not sure what that means).

http://alwatan.com.sa/news/newsdetail.asp?issueno=3261&id=116255&groupID=0

Michael Collins Dunn said...

I'm not sure what a mumtaz rank is either, but it's clearly a Good Thing.