DOT Desk:Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) became somewhat of a pariah in the West following the 2018 assassination of dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the kingdom’s consulate in
Istanbul,reports Dhakatribune. Four years on and the world has changed. Both US President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron have met with the Saudi leader this year, as rising oil prices and Europe’s energy crisis put Western economies on the back foot.Now it’s German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s turn to court MBS. He is due to meet the crown prince in Riyadh on Saturday during a two-day visit to the Gulf. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Qatar are the other two stops. While many German politicians and rights groups will publicly pressure Scholz to raise Saudi Arabia’s human rights record, Eckhart Woertz, director of GIGA Institute of Middle East Studies, told DW that the chancellor needs to tread a narrow path.