West Asia At War: Repression, Resistance and Great Power Games

by Talmiz Ahmad

There are reports of an attempted coup by Saudi military officers in May 1955; they had been trained in Egypt and were seeking to overthrow the royal family with the help of Egyptian advisers.38 In April 1958, the ‘National Liberation Front of Saudi Arabia’, made up of Saudi nationalists, demanded wide-ranging reforms in the country, including a Constitution, free elections, and freedom of speech and association. These reformists were joined by a group of princes, all sons of King Abdulaziz, who were influenced by Nasser. They included Princes Talal, Nawwaf, Abdul Mohsin and Badr, and were later joined by a few others. They were known as ‘Free Princes’, who called for a constitutional monarchy and even submitted a draft Constitution to King Saud in early September 1960. In 1962, they made their way to Cairo and met Nasser. Prince Talal, their most authoritative member, proclaimed socialism as the main principle of Islam. Through the 1960s and early 1970s, there were several attempts by left-wing groups to effect a governmental change – an attempted coup that was foiled in December 1962; a leftist effort in February 1963; another in December 1965; and sustained labour unrest during. In January 1967, hundreds of ‘trained saboteurs’ were arrested and accused of planned bombings of military, royal, and US targets. In June 1969, a major assassination conspiracy, mainly by military officers, was foiled.