The federal government has been accused of “rolling out the purple carpet to dictators” following information that Saudi Arabia’s crown prince Mohammed Bin Salman is about to go to later this 12 months.
The go to, pencilled in earlier than the tip of 2023 in keeping with a report within the Occasions, comes regardless of considerations concerning the Crown Prince’s human rights report.
Responding to information of the go to, Liberal Democrat house affairs spokesperson instructed the i newspaper: “What’s the level in boasting about our power independence one week in case you then go cap-in-hand to the murderous regime in Saudi Arabia the following? Rolling out the purple carpet to dictators reveals simply how weak our Authorities has develop into.
“When Boris Johnson went to Saudi Arabia final 12 months he was welcomed with a swathe of public executions – a logo of how little our authorities’s posturing over human rights issues to the crown prince. We will count on the identical shameful spectacle to play out once more.”
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The journey, which authorities sources instructed i newspaper had but to be formally confirmed, will likely be seen as an try by the British Authorities to construct nearer hyperlinks to Saudi Arabia because the West makes an attempt to get rid of using Russian oil and gasoline.
Britain is presently looking for help within the area because it places collectively a commerce take care of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), a union of Gulf states.
Mohammed Bin Salman, or MBS, is the crown prince of Saudi Arabia and workout routines energy on behalf of his father, King Salman, 87.
However MBS had been frozen out by the West following the alleged assassination of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi on 2 October 2018.
Mr Khashoggi was a distinguished author and he went into self-imposed exile in 2017, fleeing the nation, earlier than happening to write down articles extremely essential of the regime — together with the crown prince.
US President Joe Biden described the Saudi regime as a “pariah” when he was operating for the White Home however he has additionally since made strikes to reconcile with MBS.
In November 2022, Rishi Sunak was pictured sat throughout from MBS on the G20 summit in Nusa Dua, Bali.
Within the first of their talks collectively since Sunak took workplace, the prime minister then spoke of his want to “work collectively” to the good thing about the 2 international locations.
