A group of Saudi dissident exiles in countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States has announced the launch of an opposition party, the first organized political resistance under the government of King Salman.
Saudi Arabia is an absolute monarchy that does not tolerate any political opposition, but the formation of the National Assembly Party on the anniversary of the founding of the kingdom came amid growing state crackdown on dissent and freedom of expression.
Previous attempts to organize politically in the Gulf state in 2007 and 2011 were suppressed and its members arrested.
“We hereby announce the establishment of the National Assembly Party, which aims to institute democracy as a form of government in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” the group said in a statement Wednesday.
Development is unlikely to seriously undermine the authority of the most powerful ruling family in the Arab world. But it represents a new challenge for the rulers of Saudi Arabia as they grapple with low crude oil prices and prepare to host a G20 summit in November amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The party is led by prominent London-based human rights activist Yahya Assiri, and its members include academician Madawi al-Rasheed, researcher Saeed bin Nasser al-Ghamdi, American Abdullah Alaoudh and Canadian Omar Abdulaziz, sources close to To the group. he told the AFP news agency.
“We are announcing the launch of this party at a critical time to try to save our country … to institute a democratic future and respond to the aspirations of our people,” Assiri, the party’s secretary general, told AFP.
Assiri, a former officer in the Royal Saudi Air Force, founded the London-based human rights organization ALQST, which has cataloged what it calls widespread state abuses, including arrests of activists, academics and members of the royal family.
The announcement comes at a time when “the realm of politics has been blocked in all directions,” the party’s statement said.
“The government constantly practices violence and repression, with a growing number of political arrests and assassinations, increasingly aggressive policies against regional states, enforced disappearances and people forced to flee the country,” he added.
Rasheed, a spokesman for the party, stressed that its founders “had no personal animosity towards the ruling family.”
But the absence of an independent judiciary, the government’s strict control over local media and the “muzzling of public opinion” were other factors that led to the group’s formation, according to the party’s statement.
Saudi Arabia has long faced international criticism for its human rights record. That has intensified since Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was named heir to the Saudi throne in June 2017.
In particular, the October 2018 killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul triggered unprecedented international scrutiny of the kingdom’s human rights record.
