Crown prince feels pressure
Saudi Arabia’s bin Salman faces frosty reception at G20 summit in Argentina
Once feted on the world stage, Saudi Arabia’s powerful crown prince faces quite a few cold shoulders abroad as he struggles to shrug off the lingering stigma of a critical journalist’s murder.
Prince Mohammed bin Salman has been on an Arab tour before he attending the Group of 20 summit in Argentina on Friday.
Here he will face world leaders who have strongly condemned Jamal Khashoggi’s killing last month in the kingdom’s Istanbul consulate.
The country’s de facto ruler has brushed aside the international pressure, attempting to use the overseas visits – followed by a whirlwind domestic tour – to shore up his tarnished reputation and reinforce relationships with allies.
However, the prince faces the grim prospect of being treated as an “outcast” by some leaders at the two-day G20 summit, said Bessma Momani, a professor at Canada’s University of Waterloo.
Former Spanish King Juan Carlos faced scathing domestic criticism over his handshake with the prince in Abu Dhabi, his first stop in a regional tour which also included close allies Bahrain and Egypt as well as Tunisia.
An image of the laughter filled encounter at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix last Sunday was dubbed by a conservative Spanish daily as “the photo of shame”.
Ahead of the prince’s G20 visit, Human Rights Watch urged Argentine prosecutors to consider bringing criminal charges against him over alleged war crimes in a Saudi-led war in Yemen and his possible complicity in Khashoggi’s murder.
It was unclear whether Argentine prosecutors would act on the request.
The prince, 33, widely known as MBS, used the regional tour as something of a victory lap after US President Donald Trump – who has praised Saudi Arabia as a “truly spectacular ally” – threw his weight behind him.
Trump’s emphatic support came despite the Central Intelligence Agency’s reported assessment that the prince – who controls all major levers of power in the Saudi government – was behind the killing.
But Trump faces growing pressure from US lawmakers, some of whom are demanding a probe into his financial ties to determine whether the president has any vested interest in backing the kingdom.
The prince is expected to meet Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has kept international pressure mounting on the kingdom by saying the orders for Khashoggi’s killing came from “the highest levels” of the Saudi government.
“In the event that Erdogan meets with MBS on the sidelines of the G20, it will be indicative that some sort of a deal has been reached, which could include Gulf reconciliation and concrete steps on how to wind down the war in Yemen,” said Sigurd Neubauer, a Middle East analyst based in Washington.
“However, a potential Saudi Turkish deal is unlikely to shield MBS from US Congressional investigations into the Khashoggi murder.”
In PR-slicked campaigns, the crown prince had marketed himself as a liberaliser seeking to remake his conservative petro-state.
The global fallout over the killing of Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist critical of the prince, appears to have torpedoed that effort.