1969 Saudi Arabian coup attempt

Failed coup d'état November 2020 1969 Saudi Arabian coup d'état attempt the Cold War June–July 1969 Saudi Arabia Coup failed Coup leaders arrested imprisoned or executed Saudi Arabia 1938 Arabian Peninsula People's Union Members of the Royal Saudi Air Force Saudi Arabia 1938 Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia 1938 Col. Daoud RoumiSaudi Arabia 1938 Col. Said al-Omari Saudi Arabia 1938 Maj. Yusuf Tawwil Saudi Arabia 1938 Faisal of Saudi ArabiaSaudi Arabia 1938 Crown Prince KhalidSaudi Arabia 1938 Prince FahdSaudi Arabia 1938 Prince SultanSaudi Arabia 1938 Prince AbdullahSaudi Arabia 1938 Kamal AdhamSaudi Arabia 1938 Prince Badr 200–300 Officers and civilians Thousands The 1969 Saudi Arabian coup d'état attempt was a failed coup d'état planned by numerous high-ranking members of the Royal Saudi Air Force that resulted in King Faisal ordering the arrest of hundreds of military officers, including some generals.Faisal ibn Abd al Aziz ibn Saud Biography. Encyclopedia of World Biography. Retrieved 16 March 2007.Teitelbaum, Joshua, "A Family Affair: Civil-Military Relations in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia", p. 11. The arrests were possibly based on a tip from an American intelligence agency.Vassiliev, p. 371 A previous coup attempt had also occurred against King Faisal in 1966.Judith Caesar,"Dissent in Saudi Arabia" The Christian Science Monitor, 24 August 1990. Background The 1950s and 1960s saw numerous coups d'état in the region. Muammar Gaddafi's coup that overthrew the monarchy in oil-rich Libya in 1969 was especially ominous for Saudi Arabia due to the similarity between the two sparsely populated desert countries. As a result, King Faisal built a sophisticated security apparatus, and cracked down firmly on dissent. As in all affairs, King Faisal justified these policies in Islamic terms. Early in his reign, when faced by demands for a written constitution for the country, King Faisal responded that "our constitution is the Quran."Official website of the Saudi Deputy Minister of Defense, Official Saudi government journal Umm Al-Qura Issue 2193, 20 October 1967 https://web.archive.org/web/20141106060402/http://www.muqatel.com/openshare/Wthaek/Khotob/Khotub13/AKhotub119_6-1.htm_cvt.htm#أم%20القرى 6 November 2014 Plot The plotters controlled some air force planes. Their plan was for these planes to bomb the Royal Palace in Riyadh, to kill the King and the other high ranking princes who might succeed him. After the King and princes were dead, the plotters planned to announce the formation of the Republic of the Arabian Peninsula. Many of the conspirators were of Hejazi origin; there was an independent Kingdom of Hejaz, until it was annexed by the Saudis in 1925. One of the key conspirators, Yusuf Tawwil, a Hejazi merchant and acquaintance of Prince Fahd, was believed to hold Hejazi separatist beliefs. Others involved in the plot were Najdis or Sunnis from the Eastern Province.Mordechai Abir Saudi Arabia: Government, Society and the Gulf Crisis 1993 Routledge 58 After the Saudi government discovered the coup, a wave of mass arrests followed, including the arrest of 28 Lieutenant Colonels and 30 Majors alongside around 200 other officers. By the end of 1969 about 2,000 people had been arrested in connection with the coup attempt.مضاوي الرشيد دار الساقي تاريخ العربية السعودية بين القديم والحديث https://books.google.com/books?id=XkhpDgAAQBAJ&pg=PT128 21 March 2017 Dar al Saqi 978-614-425-316-8 128 Some other participants managed to flee the country. A number of coup participants were executed including two Colonels, Daoud Roumi and Said al Omari. King Faisal claimed that the failed coup had been planned by the Egyptian officials and that Sami Sharaf was the planner of the plot.2020 Brandon Friedman The End of Pax Britannica in the Persian Gulf, 1968-1971 Palgrave Macmillan Cham 978-3-030-56182-6 10.1007/978-3-030-56182-6 119,133 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-56182-6 Aftermath Immediately after the incident, the relations between King Faisal and Prince Fahd, interior minister, became tense. Because the king accused Prince Fahd of being late to take steps to suppress the coup. Following this disagreement Prince Fahd left the country and stayed in Europe until May 1970. References Category:1960s coups d'état Category:June 1969 in Asia Category:July 1969 in Asia Category:1969 in Saudi Arabia Category:Attempted coups d'état in Asia 1969 Category:1969 conflicts Category:Republicanism in Saudi Arabia Category:Royal Saudi Air Force