The editor of the Jeddah-based Arab News, Faisal Abbas, has mounted a robust defence of the wide-ranging purge and detention of senior royals, ministers and officials by the Saudi king and his favourite son, crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, on November 3. Abbas rejected suggestions of an “internal power struggle” and firmly supported the official narrative that this was all about investigations into fraud and corruption.
Carried away by his own rhetoric, Abbas breathlessly concluded that the “ambitious reforms” being implemented in the kingdom affirmed that “we are finally living in a country where anything can happen”. He finally got the last part right.
