On Feb. 3, King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud issued a royal decree that punishes Saudi citizens with three to 20 years in prison for fighting abroad. Those who belong to or sympathize with radical religious and political movements will also be punished. This came after the new Saudi anti-terror law was put into practice Feb. 2.

The Saudi media immediately reported on the range of groups that are targeted by the decree. In addition to the obvious al-Qaeda suspects, other groups include members and sympathizers of the Saudi branch of the Muslim Brotherhood and the Sururis, the large Islamist movement that resulted from the fusion of the Brotherhood ideology and the Salafist tradition in Saudi Arabia. In short, the royal decree targets a range of Islamists whose presence in Saudi Arabia is not regulated in political parties, as those remain illegal, but function as trends with well-known leaders and followers. It seems that both the new law and the royal decree are desperate attempts to face serious domestic and regional challenges. However, it is uncertain whether they will deliver peace.

At the domestic level, it seems that the Saudi government is determined to punish not only the radicals but also the moderate Islamists who have not challenged it in an open confrontation since the Arab Spring erupted. It is worth noting that those moderate Islamists were the first to reject online calls for demonstrations in March 2011. They sided with the government and distanced themselves from demonstrations and civil disobedience. But after Riyadh supported the Egyptian coup in 2013, many Saudi sympathizers of the Muslim Brotherhood began to criticize their own government for continuing to subsidize military rule in Egypt. The new decree is bound to end this late episode of transnational Islamist solidarity. But the Saudi government may not be able to continue to count on its own moderate Islamists for support, as that group may increasingly drift away from its present coexistence with the regime. How many of them will abandon their moderate stance remains to be seen, but feeling frustrated, trapped and under constant surveillance may drive some to abandon the current truce.

At the regional level, the royal decree came at a time when Saudi Arabia is facing criticism over its continuous support for rebel groups in Syria and reports about Saudis participating in the fighting on the side of radical Islamic rebels. The government tried to create an Islamic Front under which so-called moderate Islamists could topple the regime of President Bashar al-Assad while leaving more radical brigades to fight under the banner of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham. The deterioration of the situation in both Syria and Iraq raised many questions over Saudi involvement, and Riyadh remains accused of sponsoring radical groups and undermining diplomatic efforts. In an attempt to change this image, judge and Consultative Council member Issa al-Ghaith explained that the royal decree sends a clear message to the West that Saudi Arabia is serious about fighting terrorism. The previous Saudi policy of using jihadists as an arm of its foreign policy in places like Afghanistan may have reached a dead end. Instead of the government subsidizing jihadist flights to Pakistan in the 1980s, it seems that now, jihadists face serious prison sentences upon their return to Saudi Arabia.