Report: Prince Mohammed is said to have forged the king's signature on the war decree

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is accused of forging his father's signature on the royal decree that started the kingdom's war against Houthi rebels in Yemen, a former Saudi official said.

This claim was made without evidence in an interview with the BBC by Saad al-Jabri, a former Saudi intelligence officer who now lives in exile in Canada.

Newsweek has emailed the Saudi royal family and the Saudi embassy in London for comment but received no response as of Monday morning.

The war in Yemen began in 2014 with a promise by then-Defense Minister Prince Mohammad to end the war quickly. Instead, the war dragged on for nearly a decade, claimed over 150,000 lives and triggered one of the worst humanitarian crises in recent history.

In his remarks to the BBC, al-Jabri said a “credible, reliable” official from the Saudi Interior Ministry had confirmed to him that Prince Mohammed had signed the royal decree declaring war on behalf of his father.

“We were surprised that there was a royal decree allowing ground interventions,” al-Jabri told the BBC. “He forged his father's signature for this royal decree. The king's mental capacity deteriorated.”

The Saudi government had previously described al-Jabri as a “discredited former government official.”

The official is embroiled in a years-long dispute with the kingdom over the detention of his two children in connection with what he describes as an attempt to lure him back to Saudi Arabia.

A U.S.-based lawyer for al-Jabri did not immediately respond to a request for comment from AP.

Prince Mohammed has increasingly taken over leadership responsibilities from his ageing father, King Salman.

The conflict in Yemen recently escalated when Houthi forces launched attacks on shipping amid the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Al-Jabri's allegations add to growing criticism of Prince Mohammed's leadership, which has been marked by aggressive measures to consolidate his power, including the sacking of former Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef in 2017.

Bin Nayef, once a key US ally in the fight against terrorism, is likely to be under house arrest following his ouster.

Al-Jabri had previously sued Prince Mohammed in a US federal court, claiming that the crown prince had planned an assassination attempt on him after fleeing Saudi Arabia.

In his interview with the BBC, he repeated the claim made in a 2021 CBS News interview that Prince Mohammed had considered using a poison ring from Russia to kill former King Abdullah.

Al-Jabri expressed fears for his own safety and said the crown prince “will not rest until he sees me dead.”