After former King of Saudi Arabia Adbullah bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud’ s death last week, the transfer of power appears to have passed smoothly to the new king, Salman bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud. However, despite this, foreign policy experts have raised concerns that there may have been some elements of corruption at play in the most recent decision.
“ There are a lot of red flags.” said one correspondent who declined to be identified, “ There are just too many indicators…I mean, the two [most recent] kings have had the exact same last name. We’ re concerned that we may be looking at a very deeply ingrained system of nepotism.”
Further investigation has revealed that Salman bin Abdulaziz is actually his predecessor’ s half-brother, and perhaps more alarmingly, he has already named his brother, Muqrin bin Abdulaziz, as the heir apparent. Muqrin will be followed by Salman’ s nephew, in what many etymologists have said is “ literally the definition of nepotism.”
Defenders of Salman have argued that he served as Governor of Riyadh, Second Deputy Prime Minister, and Minister of Defense for Saudi Arabia, but critics have dismissed these claims. “ Yes, he has an impressive resume, but at the end of the day, do you really think that’s what qualified him for the job?”
