Bahrain Mirror (Exclusive): In the statement that mostly showed the aggravation of conflict between the royal court and Prime Minister Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, the Interior Minister Rashid bin Abdullah Al Khalifa denied the royal court having any links to the Twitter "Na'eb Ta'eb" account that targeted Khalifa bin Salman and his supporters for more than a month.

The "Na'eb Ta'eb" account, created on February 3, 2018 following leaked conversations between the Council of Ministers Assistant Undersecretary Ibrahim Al-Dosari and MP Anas Buhendi, played a key role in transferring the conflict to the public opinion, after publishing these conversations in which the royal court saw the true face of Khalifa bin Salman.

These conversations showed a harsh attack from Al-Dosari on Follow up Affairs Ahmed bin Ateyatalla Al Khalifa whom he dubbed a "dog". They also revealed Anas Buhendi's beliefs that the royal court is responsible for the corruption in the country and that King Hamad bin Isa (whose day starts at 3 PM) knows nothing about what's happening around.

The royal court considered that the views issued by the two do not represent them, but rather the spokespersons of Khalifa bin Hamad. Thus, the royal court ordered to form a committee assigned to investigate Ibrahim Al-Dosari's ownership of Al-Reem center land plot. Nonetheless, Al-Dosari wasn't the only one targeted.

The investigation committee was aimed at proving that Khalifa bin Salman is the one who granted Al-Dosari the land plot, upon which a school was supposed to be constructed, in addition to opening an investigation in the government's land grants, which reveal the volume of corruption practiced by him when he had control over the government's real estates before it was transferred under decree 19/2002 to the royal court when Hamad bin Isa came to power, in order to grab them himself.

Khalifa bin Salman knew the message the royal court, headed by Khalid bin Ahmed, wanted to convey. Therefore, he fought against its formation with all his power until he succeeded in dissolving it before it even began practicing its job.

Khalifa bin Salman openly announced this in his weekly session on Sunday (March 18, 2018), stating that "the House of Representatives inserted itself into a matter that is not under its specialty," adding "the Parliamentary committee was illegally formed and based on malicious rumors".

Khalifa stressed that he granted Al-Dosari a land plot as he granted thousands of others, stressing that he has "never grabbed any land in his entire life. I assure you that land grabbing is not the habits of Khalifa bin Salman."

Online War

It is true that Khalifa bin Salman put an end to the committee's work; however, the Twitter accounts that Khalid bin Ahmed and Ahmed bin Ateyatalla gave the green light continued to work. This time "Na'eb Ta'eb" widened its accusations circle to include Khalifa bin Salman himself and his family for involvement in corruption, in addition to accusing him of betrayal with respect to the conflict with Qatar.

The "Na'eb Ta'eb" account that continued to reiterate that it is affiliated to the royal court attacked Khalifa bin Salman for protecting corruption. It also claimed that his office is a center where corrupters are not allowed to be held accountable, and that on the contrary, Khalifa bin Salman promoted them. The account also accused his grandson Khalifa bin Rashid Al Khalifa of managing corruption in his office.

The account owner accused Khalifa bin Salman of colluding against King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and his royal court minister Khalid bin Ahmed instead of supporting them. It further highlighted that loyalty is to the king only.

The royal court exaggerated its conflict with the Prime Minister when the account owner tried to suggest in a series of tweets that the latter distances itself from the conflict between Bahrain and Qatar. It also said that his office is infiltrated by the Muslim Brotherhood and that it "avoided criticizing Qatar, rarely ding so, as well as complementing the boycotting countries."

Khalifa bin Salman was fully aware of those accusations, since "Na'eb Ta'eb" started leaking Al-Dosari's conversations (onset of last February) and demanded the PM and Interior Minister to put an end to the account and accused the anti-cybercrimes directorate of spreading sedition; however, no one responded to his demands.

The PM said in an article published by Akhbar Al-Khaleej newspaper that: "As for what happened on social media outlets, what hurts us is that it happened by employees of government ministries who didn't only harm us, but harm the entire society as well."

The director of the Anti-Cybercrimes Directorate of the General Authority for Combating Corruption and Economic and Cyber Security, Ahmed Al-Rumaihi, said that all employees at the Authority are performing their duties without paying heed to any external pressures.

With all the disregard of the royal court and interior minister towards the demands of Khalifa bin Salman, it is believed that Khalifa resorted to "the big neighbor" to stop the campaign launched by the royal court against him.

The PM announced this by saying that "they turned us to a fabricated story, a story told not only inside Bahrain, but also in the Gulf States. It reached the leaders of these states who expressed their dissatisfaction. All of this has happened indeed." He then left the floor for his close newspaper to speak the rest.

Akhbar Al-Khaleej concluded his statements last week saying: "Finally...doesn't the PM have the right to get angry seeing that what had happened caused the discontent of some leaders in the region, including the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, who expressed displeasure at the issue twice."

However, the PM was no longer angry as Akhbar Al-Khaleej revealed under the title, "Why the PM's face showed full of content and satisfaction at his office yesterday?" The newspaper answered: "There is no explanation expect that Khalifa bin Salman is always right...that Allah always supports him (...) that those who attempt to make him angry are always wrong... and that the prompters of falsehood are mute devils... their state won't last because it is built on wrong...as the state of falsehood only lasts for an hour."

Khalifa felt happy in Saudi Arabia, thus, he dedicated much time in his speech to hail its king Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and his son Mohammed bin Salman as well as his successful visit to Washington, as if we wants to pay them back for "stopping his enemies' evil" which, according to him,  he can face.

This happened while the Interior Minister Rashid bin Abdullah was following orders by announcing measures to stop what he described as "unprecedented online chaos". At the same time, he tried to claim that the royal court had nothing to do with managing the "Na'eb Ta'eb" account, which in one of its recent tweets included a photo of Khalid bin Ahmed with a comment reading a poem verse in slang: "if he speaks, everyone unwillingly shuts up... and if he remains silent, all the world stays silent."

So, was the Interior Minister delivering the surrender speech of Khalid bin Ahmed defeated in the face of Khalifa bin Salman, so that the Na'eb Ta'eb account would shut down forever? Or does this long conflict between the two men have other rounds?

Arabic Version