MBS blends anti-graft crackdown with a very political purge

Following the 4 November arrest of some of the most celebrated members of the Saudi elite – including the dismissal and subsequent detention of Saudi Arabian National Guard (SANG) minister Prince Miteb Bin Abdullah Bin Abdelaziz – the Al-Salman clan, driven by Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS), has underlined its reputation for supporting its widely trumpeted claims to be enacting economic and social reform with an autocratic approach to politics. The list of those detained in the purge includes dozens of princes, ministers, officials and prominent businessmen, sufficient to cause tremors across the kingdom