The Saudi visit: rolling out the red carpet

There was “no shortage of red carpets” for Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman when he visited Britain last week, said Kim Sengupta in The Independent. “Lunch with the Queen was followed by dinner with Prince Charles and the Duke of Cambridge.” But the “real business” took place when MBS, as he is known, had tea with Theresa May in Downing Street. The 32-yearold prince, now Saudi Arabia’s effective ruler, is carrying out both social and economic reforms: his Vision 2030 involves creating a new $500bn mega-city on the Red Sea coast and turning the nation into a global trade hub. “And the UK stands to get a slice of the commercial action – a very welcome boost at a time of deep uncertainties over Brexit.” The “great prize” is the flotation of Aramco, the giant Saudi state oil company, which the City very much hopes will take place on the London Stock Exchange.

The Prime Minister should think twice before hugging MBS too close, said Christopher de Bellaigue in The Spectator. He has, in some respects, liberalised Saudi society. The role of the religious police has been scaled back. Women will be allowed to drive from this summer. He has promised to promote only moderate Islam. But MBS is also “an old-fashioned despot” with a “limitless brief”. Last November, he “locked up much of the country’s business elite in the Ritz-carlton in Riyadh”, and didn’t let them go until he had recovered billions of dollars that they had allegedly embezzled. May “must stop this shameful kowtowing to an abusive, undemocratic regime”, said Simon Tisdall in The Guardian. At home, MBS is a dictator, whose opponents are imprisoned and tortured. Abroad, he is a “reckless” aggressor, who has launched a murderous intervention in Yemen’s civil war, using British-made arms, and who has imposed a blockade on Qatar, “an important Western ally”.

Don’t listen to the naysayers, said John R. Bradley in The Spectator. Leaders like MBS are the best hope for the Middle East. Of course he’s not a democrat or a liberal in the Western mould. But the Arab Spring has shown that too-sudden political reforms in the region lead “inexorably to chaos and bloodshed”. Liberalisation can only happen slowly, in lockstep with strong economic progress. Britain has every interest in supporting a moderate, outward-looking Saudi Arabia, said The Daily Telegraph. The country is very important to us “as a defence partner, a market, a substantial investor and as a bulwark against the Islamist extremists who would do us all harm”. It was quite right to welcome MBS “to our shores”.