Saudi officials imprisoned after opposing Bin Salman's plot against Al-Thani

Saudi whistle-blower Mujtahid, who is believed to be a member of or have a well-connected source in the royal family, disclosed failure of the plot hatched by Saudi Deputy Crown Prince and Defense Minister Mohammad bin Salman against Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani.

Mujtahid revealed that a number of members of Al ash-Sheikh, Saudi Arabia's leading religious family, including a member of the consultative assembly, were imprisoned in Istiraha by bin Salman to sign a statement against al-Thani.

He added that bin Salman freed them after being disappointed from their endorsement of the statement provided that they avoid releasing the incident through the social media.

Mujtahid said the member of the consultative assembly might be pressured to deny his revelations or the Saudi media might damage his words.

In relevant remarks last Tuesday, Mujtahid disclosed that Mohammad bin Salman and Supreme Commander of UAE's Union Defense Force Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahyan have slammed the Saudi intelligence ministry for providing wrong intel about Qatar.

According to Mujtahid, the Saudi intelligence ministry had estimated a huge loss for Qatar following a severance by Riyadh and its allies of ties with Doha but the developments showed that Qatar had prepared itself for these days.

According to reports, Riyadh and its regional allies had overestimated the negative impacts of closing their airspaces to Qatari planes, underestimating Doha's remaining option to use Iran's airspace by rerouting its flights.

Qatar Airways canceled flights to Bahrain, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates a day after it had suspended flights to Saudi Arabia.

Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt cut off diplomatic ties with Qatar last month, and suspended air and sea communication one week after the summit in Riyadh. Later, Libya and the Maldives joined that list of nation that break off diplomatic relations with Doha.

EA