Saudi Arabia: Mohammed bin Salman invited to the UK, says report

The British government has invited Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to visit London later this year, the Financial Times reported on Friday.

Citing people briefed on the trip, the newspaper said the visit is expected to take place in October or November.

A British government official confirmed the visit and said the exact timing will be “up to them, given we need them more than they need us.”

It would be the first trip by the Saudi Arabian crown prince to London since he became an international pariah in October 2018 following the murder of Middle East Eye and Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents in Istanbul.

After a four-year enforced hiatus, he made his first trip to Europe since the murder in July 2022, visiting Greece and France. 

Earlier that year, he met with then-British Prime Minister Boris Johnson in Riyadh as London sought to lobby the Gulf kingdom for higher oil production in the aftermath of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Saudi Arabia is one of the UK's largest economic partners in the region, with bilateral trade worth £17.3bn ($22.68bn) in 2022, according to the British government.

Last month, the UK's High Court rejected a bid by campaigners to overturn the government's resumption of arms sales to Saudi Arabia for use in the war in Yemen.

A previous court challenge by the UK-based Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) in 2019 forced the UK government to suspend arms sales. 

But after an internal review, sales resumed in 2021 on the basis that the breaches of humanitarian law were "isolated incidents". 

According to Oxfam, the UK has licensed at least £7.9bn ($9.6bn) in arms to Saudi Arabia across 547 licences since 2015, including Tornado and Typhoon aircraft and bombs. 

CAAT says the true value of arms sales could be more than £23bn (around $28bn) when additional "open licensees" are taken into account.

'Rehabilitating' international image

Last month, Mohammed bin Salman visited Paris and met with French President Emmanuel Macron as he continued to seek to restore his image in the western world in the aftermath of Khashoggi's murder. 

Saudi Arabia denies the crown prince's involvement, but US intelligence agencies have concluded the killing likely occured with Mohammed bin Salman's knowledge.

Rights groups accused Macron during the visit last month of "rehabilitating" the Saudi leader's international image. 

Khashoggi's killing caused massive outrage and a rift in Saudi Arabia's relationship with western countries.

While rights groups continue to call out Saudi Arabia for the killing as well as a number of other rights abuses, Washington and other European capitals have since sought to repair these ties.