Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s powerful heir to the throne, has reportedly kept his own mother away from his father, the king, out of fear she would stand in the way of his rapid consolidation of power.

The prince prevented his mother, Princess Fahda bint Falah Al Hathleen, from seeing King Salman more than two years ago and at one point may even have kept her under house arrest at a royal palace, NBC News reported, citing 14 current and former US senior intelligence officials.

Saudi Arabia’s government strongly denied that she was being kept cloistered away by her son.

Little is known about Princess Fahda, the king’s third wife, and like most Saudi royal women she is not seen in public.

According to NBC, the crown prince has provided his father with several reasons he could not see his mother.

On a visit to the White House in 2015, the elderly 82-year-old king apparently mistakenly told then-President Barack Obama that his wife was receiving medical treatment in New York, contrary to the US's own intelligence that she was not in the country.

A spokeswoman for the Saudi embassy in Washington said the claim was “absolutely not true”.

Meanwhile, France reportedly issued an arrest warrant for Prince Mohammed's sister for allegedly ordering a bodyguard to attack a workman at her flat in Paris.