LONDON – Mohammed bin Salman, the divisive crown prince of Saudi Arabia,arrived in London on Wednesday for a three-day state visit. The 32-year-oldwas greeted at the airport by Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and had lunchwith Queen Elizabeth II, a rare honor for a man not yet head of state.
Later, he will dine with Prince Charles and Prince William – two Britishroyals who are, like him, next in line to the throne, although they hold afraction of his political power.
But the pomp and the red carpet notwithstanding, Mohammed’s visit alreadyhas turned into a bitter PR battle between those who support the moves heis making for Saudi Arabia and those who call him a “war criminal”,Washington Post has reported.
In some cases, the battle veered into absurd territory, such as whenpro-Saudi advertisements were placed next to online articles criticizingthe crown prince.
Although Mohammed has pushed through some liberal policies at home -including his dramatic decision to allow women to drive – and he is viewedas a key economic ally for a post-Brexit Britain, his foreign policy iscontroversial in London.
Notably, the crown prince is the architect of a Saudi-led interventionagainst Iran-allied rebels in Yemen. Critics say Saudi Arabia’sindiscriminate use of force in that conflict has had disastrousconsequences for Yemeni civilians, exacerbating what may be the worsthumanitarian disaster on Earth.
According to U.N. estimates from last year, more than 10,000 people havebeen killed in Yemen since 2015. More than 3 million people have beendisplaced, the United Nations estimated, and 80 percent of the populationis in need of humanitarian aid.
Awkwardly for Johnson and Prime Minister Theresa May, Britain is a keymilitary supplier of Saudi Arabia. According to one estimate, sales ofBritish weapons to Saudi Arabia increased almost 500 percent, to 4.6billion pounds ($6.4 billion), after 2015, when the Saudi intervention inYemen began. Saudi Arabia is now the top destination forBritish-manufactured weapons.
A poll commissioned by the Campaign Against Arms Trade and carried out byPopulus found that only 6 percent of the British public supported armssales to Saudi Arabia; 37 percent opposed Mohammed’s visit to Britain.
Amid this public mistrust, advertisements praising Mohammed’s reforms havebeen blanketing London – in an apparent bid to woo Britons. Theadvertisements have appeared on billboards, on taxis, on trucks and innewspapers.
AEI Saudi, the firm behind the advertisements, is a consulting businessthat was registered in Riyadh in 2002. In a blog post, the firm’s founderhighlighted the significant changes he has seen in recent years in SaudiArabia, such as a new inclusion of Saudi women in public life.
“If there is one individual who has been the driving force behind thesechanges it is ‘MbS’, as he is often known,” wrote Adam Hosier, theBritish-born founder of the firm. “He has faced resistance of course, bothinternally and from powers outside the Kingdom, yet he has not faltered.”
But these were not the only advertisements greeting the crown prince. Incentral London, buses were emblazoned with messages accusing Mohammed ofbeing a “war criminal,” while social media users used hashtags to let theSaudi royal know that he was “not welcome.”
Activists from Avaaz, a global activism group, parked a van outsideParliament and had two figures dressed as Mohammed and May drop offchild-size body bags. A sign on the van said May should tell the crownprince: “Stop the slaughter, start peace talks!”
Save the Children, a London-based charity, also highlighted the plight ofchildren in Yemen by placing outside Parliament a small statue of a childstanding in rubble and staring at the sky.
Meanwhile, the Arab Organization for Human Rights in UK has scheduled aprotest outside Downing Street, due to start at 5 p.m. local time.
It is unclear who is winning the PR battle – other than advertisingagencies, of course. The pro-Saudi messages were certainly mocked: Somenoted that the advertisements looked better suited to a “sleazy gentlemen’sclub” and pointed out that online ads praising Mohammed had appeared nextto articles about Saudi corruption.
Many of the billboards welcoming the crown prince appeared along themotorways that connect Heathrow Airport to central London – suggesting thatMohammed may have been the intended audience.
However, the protests outside Parliament seem to have resonated insideWestminster. During the weekly Prime Minister’s Question Time on Wednesdayafternoon, opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn criticized Saudi Arabia’s recordon human rights and accused May of “colluding” in suspected war crimes inYemen.
“The link that we have with Saudi Arabia is historic, it is an importantone, and it has saved the lives of potentially hundreds of people in thiscountry,” May responded, as opposition lawmakers shouted “shame.”
May later said that she would raise the issue of human rights with thecrown prince when she met him and that she had spoken with him abouthumanitarian concerns in Yemen during a visit to Riyadh in December.
The controversy over Saudi Arabia puts May in a tight spot politically.Britain is looking for bigger trading partners as it leaves the EuropeanUnion, and broadening its economic relationship with Saudi Arabia wouldhelp it do that. The two nations are planning to create a joint StrategicPartnership Council that could lead to Saudi investment of up to 100billion pounds ($139 billion) in the next 10 years, according to the BBC.
However, the visit is also important for the Saudi crown prince, who isseeking foreign investment as part of Vision 2030, his ambitious plan toreform his country. There are also hopes that the long-awaited publiclisting of the state oil firm Saudi Aramco might take place on the LondonStock Exchange.
Mohammed also is planning to visit the United States, home to the New YorkStock Exchange, for an investment-focused visit set to start March 19.