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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 rise to power.

The reports came as he warned that Saudi Arabia would develop its own nuclear weapons if Iran was allowed to build a nuclear bomb.

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The prince has prevented Princess Fahda bint Falah Al Hathleen, his mother, from seeing King Salman for more than two years. At one point, she may even have been held under house arrest at a royal palace, NBC News reported, citing 14 current and former U.S. intelligence officials. Saudi Arabia’s government strongly denied the claim.

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

Photo by DAN KITWOOD/AFP/Getty Images

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

On a visit to the White House in 2015, the elderly 82-year-old king apparently mistakenly told Barack Obama, then the president, that his wife was receiving medical treatment in New York, contrary to U.S. intelligence that she was not in the country. A spokesman for the Saudi embassy in Washington said the claim was “absolutely not true”.