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Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was to address an international investment summit in Riyadh on Wednesday, his first such comments since the killing earlier this month of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. Organisers of the Future Investment Initiative listed Prince Mohammed bin Salman among the “top speakers” for the second day of the three-day conference after he made a brief appearance on Tuesday.
The summit is the prince’s brainchild, an effort to draw much-needed foreign direct investment into the kingdom to create jobs for its young population. However, this year’s summit has been overshadowed by the Oct. 2 killing of Khashoggi. Turkish officials say the writer was killed by a 15-man Saudi hit squad that included a member of Prince Mohammed’s entourage on overseas trips.
The murder of the journalist has raised a lot of issues within the International community and have no doubt tarnished the credentials of Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, the king’s powerful son. Saudi Arabia initially denied they had anything to do with Jamal’s disappearance, claimed Jamal Khashoggi left freely after visiting the consulate.
But as international pressure became overbearing on the Kingdom, the Saudi authority then retracted their earlier statement, then claimed the Washington Post Journalist died inside the mission when an argument degenerated into a fistfight. It later acknowledged that he had in fact been murdered, as Turkish officials said all along.
