Bahrain Mirror: The CIA has warned that a prominent Arab activist who is living in the country under asylum protection is facing a potential threat from Saudi Arabia due to publicly criticizing Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the Guardian revealed in a report on Tuesday.

Iyad El-Baghdadi is Palestinian. He was born in Kuwait and lived in the UAE before he moved to live in Norway as a political asylum. El-Baghdadi was alerted to the threat on 25 April, when Norwegian authorities arrived at his doorstep, took him to a secure location, and warned him he was in possible danger from an unspecified threat emanating from the kingdom.

The activist was told the threat had been passed on to Norwegian authorities by a foreign intelligence agency, which the Guardian has confirmed was the CIA.

"The way I understood it was, the Saudis have a crosshairs on me, but there is no idea of what they are going to do," El-Baghdadi said in a phone interview with the Guardian.

"They assured me that they are taking it very seriously. They came prepared," he said, noting that authorities had arrived with two squads: one to whisk him away, and another to ensure they were not being followed.

"I had plans to travel elsewhere but they [the Norwegian authorities] asked that I cancel these," he told Al Jazeera. He added that he was worried about his family because he can't get in touch with them directly. 

He said that he knew about the threat about two weeks ago. He was studying the consequences of his announcement during this period, noting that his decision to appear before the media came after consultation with the Norwegian authorities.

"A big part of my work these past two years was focused on the human rights situation in Saudi Arabia," El-Baghdadi said.

Arabic Version