Canada-Saudi Relations: Tense

"Saudi Arabia has gone after dissidents abroad ... this did not begin with MBS [Mohammed bin Salman]. That whole range of, not just assassinations and renditions, but pressure more broadly on dissidents, Saudi Arabia does that -- and it does it a lot."

"It's really difficult to say [how the former Saudi diplomat's presence in Canada impacts on Canada-Saudi relations]."

"Relations are bad. This is probably just one more hurdle, but it's not the only one."

Thomas Juneau, professor, faculty of Public and International Affairs, University of Ottawa

"Canada and Saudi Arabia do not have an extradition treaty, and there are currently no extradition proceedings in progress regarding Mr. al-Jabri."

"[We ar ] concerned by the detention of Saad al-Jabri's two children in Saudi Arabia." 

"For privacy reasons, we are unable to provide further details on Mr. Saad al-Jabri's status in Canada."

Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs

"In a direct communication from Prince Mohammed [bin Salman] in September 2017, Saad Aljabri was told that he would have to return to Saudi if he wanted his children [Omar and Sarah] to be allowed to travel."

"This time without the comfort of a call or even a text message [from his siblings Omar and Sarah marks the fourth Eid al-Fitre without them]."

"Wherever you are, I hope you are well ... I love you."

Khalid Aljabri, son of Saad Aljabri

Sarah Aljabri with her father, Saad Aljabri. Along with her brother Omar, Sarah has not been seen by her family since mid-March. Photograph: Supplied

"MBS [Mohammed bin Salmon] remains concerned about the potential threat that MBN [Mohammed bin Nayef] might pose to his taking over in the post-Salman era."

"Saad would be somebody who conceivably [could] be an important figure in an MBN move of any sort."

Gerald M. Feierstein, senior vice-president, Middle East Institute, Washington, D.C.

Convoluted and medieval, that as good as describes the behind-the-scenes struggle for supremacy and inheritance behind the Saudi throne. Where close family members are favoured and then fall into disfavour. Where one close family member who ascends into favour will go out of his way to discredit and finally take steps to incarcerate other family members he may view as a possible threat to his further ascendancy. It is the skulduggery and murderous intrigues within royal families that Shakespeare famously wrote of. And history is replete with them.

Saudi Arabia is mired in the past, the Saudi dynasty is jealous of itself and woe betide any members who invoke the jealous wrath and power of another. Famously, or infamously, when it became clear that the aging King Salman had turned his favour toward his youngest son, despite having groomed a nephew for the honour of succeeding him, that youngest son issued a decree that members of the royal family were to be assembled and held in house arrest for an unspecified reason, that might obviously have been connected to any adverse reactions to his anointment as his father's successor.

MBS is hyper-sensitive over any criticism or dissent aimed at  himself or the Saudi royal family. He is impulsive, impatient, vain and autocratic. Mr. Feierstein of the Middle East Institute, formerly ambassador to Yemen in the Obama administration describes Aljabri as key in his time to security and intelligence in Saudi Arabia and as such a close confidante of Mohammed bin Nayef, formerly recognized as the successor to his uncle King Salman, a situation since reversed to favour MBS.

Saad Aljabri worked closely in collaboration with the West, to identify terrorist threats, and he was involved in the modernization of Saudi intelligence, a man recognized for  his collaborative abilities in the relationship Saudi intelligence agencies enjoyed with Western intelligence until 2015, when for reasons of his own he decided to resign his post and go into self-imposed exile. The country to which he exiled himself just happened to be Canada, where he has been living for the past two-and-a-half years.

His presence in Canada has seen the Saudi government mount an aggressive campaign to force his return to Saudi Arabia. Finally, two of his children, son Omar, 21 and daughter Sarah 20, disappeared. Into the clutches of a system whose reigning Crown Prince is using a hostage situation to force the former diplomat and intelligence chief to return to Saudi Arabia. Other members of the family had managed to exit the country.

Recent years have seen Canada and Saudi Arabia, despite their brisk trade, at human rights loggerheads.

Ensaf Haidar, wife of imprisoned Saudi blogge. (Paul Chiasson/The Canadian Press)

Raif Badawi the dissident Saudi blogger, and his sister Samar Badawi, both dissidents, have languished in prison as punishment for their human rights campaigns. Raif was sentenced to a prolonged prison stay and 1,000 lashes, his sister was arrested two years ago for her public campaigning. Ensaf Haidar,Raif Badawi's wife, lives with her three children in Montreal, as Canadian citizens, endlessly campaigning for the release of her husband.

Around 2015, Mohammed bin Salmon, now de-facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, was immensely displeased with Aljabri who was opposed to Saudi Arabia's war in Yemen, a proxy war with the Islamic Republic of Iran, contesting the Houthi Shiites backed by Iran against the internationally accepted and Saudi-linked leader of Yemen. As well, it was believed that Saad Aljabri had ties with the Muslim Brotherhood, considered a terrorist group both in Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

The Aljabri family believe that it was Mohammed bin Salmon's intention "to sideline" Saad Aljabri while intending to remove Mohammed bin Nayef from contention for the throne of the Royal House of Said who at that point in 2015 was considered next in line to succeed King Salman. Saad Aljabri was considered to be bin Nayef's next-in-command, making him a target for removal. And so he began his life in exile in the spring of 2017 before a Saudi government overhaul presaging the new line of succession for the Saudi throne, leaving bin Nayef since then under house arrest.

If that doesn't faithfully follow a Shakespearean dramatic narrative of royal intrigue and human nature at its most elemental in jealousy, antagonistic violence and depraved power, it's hard to imagine what does...!