Middle East Focus: Middle East History: Revolutionary Princes, a Defecting Air Force, and Old Tyranny……….

Arabia Deserta

Middle East History: Revolutionary Princes, a Defecting Air Force, and Old Tyranny……….

“No sooner had the decision to aid the Royalists in Yemen been taken than three Saudi air crew on a mission to fly supplies destined for them to the border town of Najran went instead to Cairo where they were promptly given Egyptian uniforms and ranks. On the following day they were joined by two more pilots in a training aircraft. As a result, the Saudi Air Force was grounded and two dozen officers were dismissed in a subsequent purge. Quickly realizing the threat to Saudi Arabia implicit in the Yemeni coup and in accordance with the defense treaty concluded two months before, King Hussein dispatched a squadron of Hunters to Taif to bolster morale. ‘Let us bomb Sana,’ said Saud in one of his exuberant moments. The Commander-in-Chief of the Jordanian Air Force and two pilots promptly defected to Egypt, forcing the Hashemite monarch to recall the rest of his aircraft. On 23 October, Talal, who a week before had renounced his title, announced plans ‘to establish a national democratic government and to leave the people free to choose the kind of government they prefer’. The (Saudi) regime, he proclaimed, was ‘steeped in backwardness, underdevelopment, reactionary individuals and tyranny……..” D. Holden & R. Jones, “House of Saud”, 1981.

That was when several top Saudi princes (the Revolutionary Princes or Free princes), led by the King's brother Talal Bin Abdulaziz. defected to Nasser's Egypt, along with a big chunk of the air force (along with some top Jordanian pilots).
Aaaah, the days when people in the Middle East thought anything was possible, when they really thought "Change was Coming".
Cheers
mhg

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