New reports revealed that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) ordered the opening of the first store to sell alcohol to diplomats in the upcoming weeks and days, sparking public outrage that the MBS is trying to legitimize the sale of alcohol in Saudi Arabia through a series of incremental steps.
Reuters earlier revealed that Saudi Arabia is preparing to open its first alcohol store in the capital Riyadh which will serve exclusively non-Muslim diplomats.
Customers will have to register via a mobile app, get a clearance code from the foreign ministry, and respect monthly quotas with their purchases, the sources.
The move is a milestone in the kingdom’s efforts, led by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), to open the ultra-conservative Muslim country for tourism and business as part of wider plans known as Vision 2030 to build a post-oil economy.
According to the sources, the new store is located in Riyadh’s Diplomatic Quarter, a neighbourhood where embassies and diplomats reside, and will be “strictly restricted” to non-Muslims. It was unclear if other non-Muslim expatriates will have access to the store as millions of expatriates live in Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia has strict laws against drinking alcohol which can be punishable by hundreds of lashes, deportation, fines, or imprisonment and expatriates also face deportation. As part of the reforms, whipping has largely been replaced by jail sentences.
She indicated that customers will have to register themselves via a mobile application to obtain a code from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs indicating the clearance and distribution of the monthly shares of their purchases.
During the years of his rule, Bin Salman promoted his pursuit of a more open kingdom to attract the largest possible number of foreign tourists to the Kingdom, which he adopted in Vision 2030 to build a diversified economy for Saudi Arabia in what is known as the post-oil economy.
Reuters also indicated that the new store that Bin Salman intends to open is located in Riyadh in the Diplomatic Quarter, where the embassies are located and where diplomats reside. It is not yet clear whether this will allow the non-Muslim public in the Kingdom to access the store and register through its application, or whether Bin Salman is thinking. In opening other branches in various parts of the country to serve non-Muslims, whose number is estimated in the millions.
It is worth noting that the Kingdom had strict laws regarding drinking alcohol, and its punishment amounted to flogging or deportation, fines, and imprisonment. After the arrival of Bin Salman, flogging was replaced by imprisonment and fines.
The Saudi government had imposed restrictions on diplomatic imports of alcohol during recent periods in order to promote the sale of the new store. The government claimed that this limits the improper exchange of private goods and alcoholic beverages received by the embassies of non-Islamic countries within the Kingdom.
