Change in Saudi Arabia not geared toward allowing democracy: Analyst

Press TV has interviewed Naseer al-Omari, an author and political commentator, about Saudi King Salman announcing a series of changes in the Saudi government on Saturday, sacking some ministers in a major cabinet reshuffle.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: What is the reason behind the moves that we are seeing taking place now in Saudi Arabia? 

Omari: Well one way to look at what is happening is that Prince Mohammad bin Salman is establishing himself as the leading figure probably after the passing of his father King Salman. We also have seen the oil minister exiting the scene and from some reports there were disagreements between Prince Mohammad bin Salman and the outgoing oil minister.

At a larger scale, these moves are supposed to deal with the slumping oil prices, with the increasing deficit in Saudi Arabia and as well as some social reforms like creating the Ministry of Recreation.

So this is along the lines of the plan for Saudi Arabia that is supposed to re-establish Saudi Arabia as a modern economy that is not dependent on oil. All of these of course, there are huge assumptions in all of these plans and the most important of them is that the government itself is not changing. They are changing everything except who is calling the shots, the legal system, the people and their voice, those things you do not hear anything about.

Press TV: Well how likely is that it is also indicative of internal struggle between these various individuals that we are talking about, I mean basically they are all family, they are cousins, tell me about that side of things and the significance of that and the possibility of that increasing? 

Omari: Well of course you never have official reports but there were reports a few days ago that the outgoing oil minister had disagreements with Prince Mohammad bin Salman. So the change is probably reflective of the growing power of Prince Mohammad bin Salman.

Of course, we have Muhammad bin Nayef, who is supposed to ascend the throne after King Salman. There is fear that that is not going to happen smoothly. We have seen a lot of names coming into the palace today replacing old names, so you have that which shows that Mohammad bin Salman is in charge and is calling the shots.

On the other hand, the plans themselves have no room for women, have no room for democracy, have no voice, do not show that the ruling family is taking into account, they are changing all these positions but there is no worry and there is no agreement by the people.

So you wonder what kind of reform we are having here with the royal family itself reshuffling and re-positioning itself for more power in the future.

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