By Clinton Asuoha
Alcohol “will be sold to non-Muslim diplomats” who previously had to import alcohol via a diplomatic pouch, one of the sources said in Saudi Arabia.
The law of alcohol Prohibition has been in existence in Saudi Arabia since 1952, shortly after one of the sons of the then Arab king, King Abdulaziz got drunk and, in a rage, shot a British diplomat dead.
Rumours have circulated for years that alcohol would become available in the Gulf kingdom amid a wave of social reforms introduced as part of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s Vision 2030 reform agenda, among them the introduction of cinemas and mixed-gender music festivals.
A statement of the Saudi governments on Wednesday revealed that authorities were introducing “a new regulatory framework… to counter the illicit trade of alcohol goods and products received by diplomatic missions”.
The statement added: “The new process will focus on allocating specific quantities of alcohol goods when entering the Kingdom to put an end to the previous unregulated process that caused an uncontrolled exchange of such goods in the Kingdom.”
The new rules in place still leave most of Saudi Arabia’s 32 million people with few ways to imbibe.
Aside attending diplomatic receptions, they can make homemade wine or turn to the black market, where bottles of whiskey can go for hundreds of dollars ahead of holidays like New Year’s Eve.