MBS talked about using a 'poison ring' to kill the Saudi king in 2014 so his father could take the throne, exiled spy says

• Mohammed bin Salman said in 2014 he could kill the then-king with a poison ring from Russia, a former spy said.
• Saad al-Jabri, a former Saudi spy chief who fled the country in 2017, made the claim about MBS.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman - also known as MBS - talked in 2014 about using a "poison ring" to kill the country's then-king so that his father could take the crown, a former Saudi spy chief said.

Saad al-Jabri, a former Saudi intelligence chief who fled the country in 2017, told CBS's "60 Minutes" in an interview aired Sunday about a meeting that he said took place in 2014 between MBS and the then-head of Saudi intelligence, Mohammed bin Nayef.

(MBS was a Saudi minister at the time; he became crown prince of Saudi Arabia in 2017 after ousting Mohammed bin Nayef from the role.)

Al-Jabri said that, in the meeting, MBS bragged that he could kill King Abdullah in order to leave his father Salman the throne.

"I want to assassinate King Abdullah. I get a poison ring from Russia," MBS had said, according to al-Jabri.

Al-Jabri said that Saudi intelligence was not sure if MBS was telling the truth or not, but said "we took it seriously." Al-Jabri also said the meeting was recorded, and that he knows where two copies of the tape are.

King Abdullah died in 2015, aged 91. He had been suffering from a lung infection, and there were no reports suggesting he was poisoned.

Crown Prince Salman, Abdullah's half-brother and MBS's father, was then named the new king.

Al-Jabri has accused MBS of plotting to kill him in Canada, where he is now based, and called MBS a "psychopath" and a "killer."

He sued MBS in a Washington, DC, court last August, alleging the prince sent a hit squad to kill him in Toronto in October 2018.