SECURITY WARNING - Saudi Arabia

Only a couple of the Embassies are issuing at the moment, not sure why all of them arn't?  Anyway, thought you all needed to be informed of the latest update, we fly back into Riyadh on the 11th, so will be interesting to fly into this

Be careful out there people, whilst this could all be a 'sandstorm in a coffee cup', it is a volatile situation and in this environment things have a habit of spontaneously combusting; so be warned.

Country: Saudi Arabia

Academics and leading Islamists call for reforms – Calls to demonstrate 11
and 20 March

27 February, 132 Saudi academics issued calls on the internet for the
establishment of a constitutional monarchy in the Saudi kingdom, along with
political and social reforms, including the separation of powers, the
adoption of a constitution and the end of all religious, tribal, regional
or racial discrimination.
They are also in favour of women having the right to work, education,
ownership and participation in public life.
In addition, 26 leading Islamists, including preacher Salman al-Auda,
signed a petition released 28 February, highlighting the need for “radical
reforms” in the Saudi kingdom and warning of chaos and bloodshed unless the
demands of reform, development and freedom are met. The political reforms
demanded in the petition include the allocation of real legislative powers
and control to the legislative council, the Majlis al-Shura, the election
of all of its members and the creation of the prime minister’s position,
occupied by the king until now.
Finally, the petition calls for the release of prisoners of opinion, the
freedom of expression and a firm fight against corruption.
The two petitions have been published on social networks on the internet
for several days, relaying calls for the organisation of a “day of anger”
11 March and a “Saudi revolution” 20 March. Given the uprisings in Arab
countries, the Saudi monarchy recently allocated a package of an additional
10.7 billion dollars (7.7 billion Euros) for the education and social
protection industries.