London is not happy with the Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud (MBS) for his apparent lack of respect for Global Britain. The City of London’s Financial Times reports that MBS had a provisional plan to visit the United Kingdom as early as Dec. 3, which he shelved shortly before he received Russian President Valdimir Putin in Riyadh on Dec. 6. British and Saudi officials have been in discussions for months about a potential trip by MBS to the United Kingdom this year, and U.K. officials said they had been working towards Dec. 3 as a possible arrival date, according to FT. The proximity of the Prince’s trip to London and Putin’s visit to Riyadh has raised questions from “Senior Conservative MPs” about the strength of Saudi-U.K. ties.
Former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith described the development to FT as “astonishing,” and referred to the postponement as a “snub.” Sir Iaian went on that there was a risk of Britain and Saudi Arabia’s other Western allies being “played for fools.” Another senior Tory MP, Robert Courts, said the postponement is “a concern because it suggests a U.K. diplomatic failure in the face of a coordinated diplomatic offensive by Putin,” and that “the U.K. should urgently review the resources and strategy behind its foreign and defense policy to prevent the slide of states towards our strategic competitors.”
