London – An organization of Exiled Saudi dissidents in Britain, USA and announced Wednesday the release of an opposition party, the first political resistance to King Salman’s reign. Saudi Arabia is an absolute monarchy that tolerates no political opposition, and the formation of the National Assembly Party on the anniversary of the founding of the kingdom comes amid a growing crackdown on dissent and freedom of expression across the state.
“We hereby announce the status quo of the National Assembly Party, which aims to identify democracy as a form of government in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” the organization said in a statement.
This progression is going to seriously undermine the authority of the Arab world’s top hard ruling family, but this poses a new challenge for Saudi leaders as they struggle with the low costs of crude oil and prepare to host a G20 summit in November amid the coronavirus pandemic.
There has been no quick reaction from the Saudi government or foreign governments, adding that the United States has deep, but contentious and confusing relations with Riyadh.
It is led by prominent London-based human rights defender Yahya Assiri.
Its members come with British educator Madawi al-Rasheed, researcher Saeed bin Nasser al-Ghamdi, activist Ahmed al-Mshikhs, Americans Abdullah Alaoudh and Canada’s Omar Abdulaziz told the AFP.
“We announced the liberation of this party at a critical moment in an attempt to save our country Array . . . to identify a long democratic term and meet the aspirations of our people,” Assiri, the party’s general secretary, told AFP.
Assiri, an exoficial of the Royal Saudi Air Force, founded the London-based human rights organization ALQST, which has documented what she calls widespread state abuses, adding arrests of activists, academics and members of the royal family.
The announcement comes at a time when “the scope of politics has been blocked in all directions,” the party said.
“The government is constantly praising violence and repression, with an increasing number of political arrests and assassinations, competitive policies opposed to regional states, enforced disappearances and others forced to flee the country,” he added.
Rasheed, the party’s spokeswoman, said its founders “did not have a non-public animosity with the ruling family. “
But the lack of an independent judiciary, a strict government over local media, and “gaging public opinion” were other points that led to the formation of the group, according to the party’s statement.
Saudi Arabia has long been complained about its human rights record.
This has intensified since Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was appointed heir to the Saudi throne in June 2017.
In particular, the horrific killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October 2018 prompted an unprecedented foreign review of the kingdom’s human rights record.
The global consequences of the killing have tarnished the crown prince’s cultivated reputation as a reformer, overesuring his ambitious attempts to modernize the economy and society of the conservative kingdom.
In a radical metamorphosis of the kingdom, Prince Mohammed, 35, cut off the powers of the formerly feared clerical establishment, lifted the global ban on female drivers, reopened cinemas and allowed combined entertainment.
But social reforms have been in line with political repression, members said.
The creation of the party is a “long-awaited decision,” said Alaoudh, whose father, Salman al-Awda, a clergyman, faces the death penalty after his arrest in September 2017.
The party has been searching for the country since “turmoil and absolute dictatorship and paves the way for democracy in a non-violent transition,” Alaoudh told the AFP.