Saudi Prince’s Performance Will Only Play in Riyadh
For all the sangfroid shown by MBS over Khashoggi, the pressure is growing on the crown prince in the U.S., from Trump to Congress.
Mohammed bin Salman managed to steer the conversation on stage away from Jamal Khashoggi. That won’t be so easy in the wider world.
Photograph: Saudi Press Agency
If Mohammed bin Salman is feeling the walls close in on him over the Khashoggi affair, there was certainly no inkling of anxiety in his performance at the Saudi investment conference in Riyadh on Wednesday. In brief comments about the murder of the Washington Post columnist, the kingdom’s de facto ruler declared the killing a “heinous crime,” adding that all legal measures were being pursued. He promised that it would not create a “wedge” between Saudi Arabia and Turkey. Thereafter, his contributions to a panel discussion were limited to economic matters.
But for all his sangfroid, pressure on Prince Mohammed is growing. In Washington, the U.S. President Donald Trump was unusually forthright when asked about the possible involvement of “MBS” in the murder: “Well, the prince is running things over there more so at this stage. He’s running things and so if anybody were going to be, it would be him.” He also described the initial Saudi narrative about what happened at the consulate in Istanbul as “the worst cover-up ever.”