ShareMBS speaks with Erdogan, vows to bring Khashoggi killers to justice
RIYADH: Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (left) arrives with Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Al-Hariri to attend the Future Investment Initiative conference in the Saudi capital yesterday. — AFPRIYADH: Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman yesterday said Kuwait could achieve major accomplishments, thanks to the country’s “Vision 2030” and financial resources. Prince Mohammed made the remark during a session on the second day of the Future Investment Initiative (FII) in the presence of Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Al-Hariri and Bahrain’s Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad. Kuwait has huge financial resources and wonderful people as well as the “Vision 2030”, which will enable the country to make major achievements, he said.
Prince Mohammed also vowed yesterday that the killers of Jamal Khashoggi would be brought to justice, in his first public comments since the journalist’s murder sparked global condemnation. Striking a defiant tone, Prince Mohammed told international investors at a major conference in Riyadh that the furor over Khashoggi’s killing at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul would not derail the kingdom’s reform drive.
“We will prove to the world that the two governments (Saudi and Turkish) are cooperating to punish any criminal, any culprit and at the end justice will prevail,” Prince Mohammed said to applause. The world’s top oil exporter has come under increasing pressure over the death of Khashoggi, a columnist and one of the crown prince’s most prominent critics. The crisis has strained Riyadh’s ties with the West and led dozens of Western politicians, top world bankers and company executives to boycott the conference that opened in Riyadh on Tuesday.
Saudi Arabia first denied any involvement in Khashoggi’s disappearance after he entered the consulate but a Saudi official eventually attributed his death on Oct 2 to a botched attempt to return him to the kingdom. Turkey has dismissed Saudi efforts to blame rogue operatives and urged the kingdom to search “top to bottom” for those responsible. Prince Mohammed said Saudi Arabia and Turkey would work together “to reach results” on a joint investigation and described cooperation between the two countries as “special”, despite criticism from Ankara. “The incident that happened is very painful, for all Saudis... The incident is not justifiable,” the crown prince said on a discussion panel at the conference.
Erdogan spoke to Prince Mohammed yesterday and the two discussed the steps needed to bring to light all aspects of Khashoggi’s death, a presidential source said. The phone call was at the request of the prince, the presidential source noted. Prince Mohammed painted a different picture of relations with Turkey. “There are now those who are trying to take advantage of the painful situation to create a rift between the kingdom and Turkey,” he said. “I want to send them a message that they cannot do this as long as there a king named Salman bin Abdulaziz and a crown prince named Mohammed bin Salman in Saudi Arabia, and a president in Turkey named Erdogan.”
His comments came hours after US President Donald Trump was quoted by the Wall Street Journal as saying that the crown prince bore ultimate responsibility for the operation that led to Khashoggi’s death. Trump said he wanted to believe Prince Mohammed when he said lower level officials were to blame for Khashoggi’s death. But the US president suggested responsibility lay higher up. “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,” Trump said. Trump also said the Saudis had a “very bad original concept” in killing the 59-year-old Saudi insider-turned-critic. “It was carried out poorly and the cover-up was one of the worst in the history of cover-ups,” Trump said.
Faced with mounting calls for tough measures by US lawmakers across the political spectrum, the US State Department said it had identified 21 Saudis whose visas would either be revoked or who would be ineligible for future visas. “We are making very clear that the United States does not tolerate this kind of action to silence Mr Khashoggi, a journalist, through violence,” US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said. British Prime Minister Teresa May said Britain was “taking action against all suspects to prevent them entering the UK. If these individuals currently have visas, those visas will be revoked today”. France also weighed in, saying it would take “punitive measures” if Saudi Arabia was “proven” to be behind the murder.
Turkish pro-government media reported yesterday that Turkish intelligence had shared “all the evidence” with the CIA gathered from its investigation into the killing of the Washington Post columnist. The evidence included video and audio recordings from the consulate and the consul’s residence and were shared with visiting CIA chief Gina Haspel, Sabah newspaper reported. The whereabouts of Khashoggi’s corpse is still unknown.
The Future Investment Initiative conference in Riyadh was overshadowed by Khashoggi’s killing, with more than two dozen high-level participants withdrawing. But Saudi Arabia showed it could still do business despite the furor, signing deals worth $50 billion at the conference on Tuesday. The event was attended by hundreds of bankers and company executives.
Prince Mohammed, 33, architect of Saudi Arabia’s reform drive, was upbeat on the economy, predicting growth of 2.5 percent this year. He seemed relaxed on the panel he shared with Bahrain’s Prince Salman and Hariri. He joked about Hariri’s detention in the kingdom last year, saying the Lebanese prime minister was free to leave after attending the conference. “Prime Minister Saad is staying in the kingdom for two days so I hope you don’t spread rumors that he was kidnapped,” Prince Mohammed, who is also known as MBS, said. Hariri, who has Saudi citizenship, was summoned to Riyadh a year ago, briefly detained and compelled to resign as prime minister in a speech read out on television from Saudi until France intervened to free him.
The Saudi central bank governor sought to reassure foreign banks that withdrew from the conference that they would not be penalized and may apply for licenses to operate in the country, the Middle East’s largest economy. So far there have been no mega announcements at the conference, in stark contrast to last year’s event that announced plans to build a $500 billion mega-city.
During the panel MBS touted Saudi Arabia’s success in its efforts to transform its oil-dependent economy and make the deeply conservative kingdom a more tolerant society. “All our projects are going ahead, reform is going ahead, our war on extremism is going ahead, our war on terrorism is going ahead...our efforts won’t stop no matter how they try to constrain us,” he said.
Despite the boycott of the investment conference by big hitters, including in Wall Street, some senior international bankers including from HSBC and Japan’s biggest lender MUFG attended. Lucid Motors chief technology officer Peter Rawlinson was also present and the US company had a dedicated stand at the venue. In September Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund agreed to invest more than $1 billion in Lucid as part of Saudi efforts to diversify the oil-dependent economy. - Agencies
