Given the speed of events in Saudi Arabia this year a stunning report surfaces stating that King Salman is anticipated to hand over ruling authority to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman next week.

According to The Daily Mail King Salman will retain the title of guardian of the holy mosques but otherwise hand over all ruling authority to the crown prince.

The King of Saudi Arabia plans to step down and announce his son as his successor next week, a source close to the country’s royal family has exclusively told DailyMail.com. The move is seen as the final step in 32-year-old Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s power grab, which began earlier this month with the arrests of more than 40 princes and government ministers in a corruption probe.

The source said King Salman will continue only as a ceremonial figurehead, handing over official leadership of the country to his son – often referred to as MBS. ‘Unless something dramatic happens, King Salman will announce the appointment of MBS as King of Saudi Arabia next week,’ said the source. ‘King Salman will play the role of the queen of England. He will only keep the title “Custodian of the Holy Shrines”. (read more)

If you haven’t followed the entirety of how the “Freedom Alliance” was assembled in the very early months shortly after the election of President Donald Trump, it’s hard to understand the scope of what is taking place in the middle-east.

The nations of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), led by Saudi Arabia, are on the cusp of transforming themselves into a modern and engaged era. The goals of the GCC allies, led by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) are to remove the influence agents who have supported extremism, the Muslim Brotherhood, and stimulated and/or enabled crisis for personal and ideological gains.

Because of the financial reach within the parties involved, the downstream consequences are being felt within the political bodies of most nations including our own. Specifically within Washington DC’s deep-state institutions, career politicians on foreign affairs committees, and within the upper and lower tiers of the aggregate U.S. State Dept. A great realignment is taking place.

It doesn’t take a deep geopolitical thinker to see the basic outlines of what’s happening. In order to confront the issues in the region, all of them, the most direct approach is to cut off the money. Saudi Arabia and their regional partners in the Gulf Cooperation Council did just that; first with Qatar and then later with regional officials.

From U.S. President Trump’s perspective he says: ‘great, go for it – my administration has your back’. After initial diplomatic strategy meetings, to discuss up the basic outlines and the consequences that could/would happen, well, then came the historic summit in Saudi Arabia. Five months later King Salman and the Crown Prince execute the plan.

After a few challenging weeks of rolling out The Big Ugly… Saudi Arabia version, King Salman now supports the crown prince to take over and take charge of the details.

Crown Prince Salman is moving toward opening and broadening Saudi Arabia’s economy to a host of international investors, which also means the U.S. no longer influencing Saudi Arabia on its own internal decisions. President Trump supports national identity, investment competition, and countries charting their own course; allies assembled as partners are more prone toward stability.

Following the Saudi Summit President Trump was clear on supporting Saudi Arabia and any Mid-East state who desired to live in peace. Instead of demanding influence, the only condition established by President Trump was that funding and support for terrorism must stop, and all regional governments join together with “unity of responsible nations”.

Chinese President Xi Jinping commits unwavering cooperation in phone call with Saudi King Salman (file photo) https://t.co/OrPK65vVz3 pic.twitter.com/PPXk5qhrQB — China.org.cn (@chinaorgcn) November 17, 2017