Saudi prince’s visit to London turns into bitter PR battle
Some call Salman a ‘war criminal’
Mohammed bin Salman, the divisive crown prince of Saudi Arabia, arrived in London on Wednesday for a three-day state visit. The 32year-old was greeted at the airport by Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and had lunch with Queen Elizabeth II, a rare honor for a man not yet head of state.
Later, he was set to dine with Princes Charles and William — two British royals who are, like him, next in line to the throne, although they hold a fraction of his political power.
But the pomp and the red carpet notwithstanding, Prince Mohammed’s visit already has turned into a bitter PR battle between those who support the moves he is making for Saudi Arabia andthose who callhim a “war criminal.”
In some cases, the battle veered into absurd territory, such as when pro-Saudi advertisements were placed next to online articles criticizing the crown prince.
Although Prince Mohammed has pushed through some liberal policies at home — including his dramatic decision to allow women to drive — and he is viewed as a key economic ally for a post-Brexit Britain, his foreign policy is controversialin London.
Notably,the crown prince is the architect of a Saudi-led intervention against Iran-allied rebels in Yemen. Critics say Saudi Arabia’s indiscriminate use of force in that conflict has had disastrous consequences for Yemeni civilians, exacerbating what maybe the worst humanitarian disaster on Earth.
According to U.N. estimates from last year, more than 10,000 people have been killed in Yemen since 2015. More than 3 million people have been displaced, the United Nations estimated, and 80 percent of the population is in need of humanitarian aid.
Awkwardly for Mr. Johnson and Prime Minister Theresa May, Britain is a key military supplier of Saudi Arabia. According to one estimate, sales of British weapons to Saudi Arabia increased almost 500 percent, to 4.6 billion pounds ($6.4 billion), after 2015, when the Saudi intervention in Yemen began. Saudi Arabia is now the top destination for Britishmanu factured weapons.
Amid this public mistrust, advertisements praising Prince Mohammed’s reforms have been blanketing London — in an apparent bid to woo Britons. Theadvertisements have appeared on billboards, on taxis, on trucks and in newspapers.
But these were not the only advertisements greeting the crown prince. In central London, buses were emblazoned with messages accusing Prince Mohammed of being a “war criminal,” while social media users used hashtags to let the Saudi royal know that he was“not welcome.”
Activists from Avaaz, a global activism group, parked a van outside Parliament and had two figures dressed as Prince Mohammed and Ms. May drop off child-size body bags. A sign on the van said Ms. May should tell the crown prince: “Stop the slaughter, start peace talks!”
Save the Children, a London-based charity, also highlighted the plight of children in Yemen by placing outside Parliament a small statue of a child standing in rubble and staring at the sky.
The protests outside Parliament seem to have resonated inside Westminster. During the weekly Prime Minister’ s Question Time on Wednesday afternoon, opposit ion leader Jeremy Corbyn criticized Saudi Arabia’s record on human rights — including abuses against women — and accused Ms. May of “colluding” in suspected war crimes in Yemen.
Ms. May — whom Mr. Corbyn denounced in particular for meeting with the crown prince ahead of International Women’s Day — also denounced the opposition leader’s comments as “mansplaining.”
Ms. May later said that she would raise the issue of human rights with the crown prince when she met him and that she had spoken with him about humanitarian concerns in Yemen during a visit to Riyadh in December.