When he arrives in London on Wednesday, Prince Mohammed will be received as head-of-state-in-waiting, and will travel to Windsor Castle for a dinner with the Queen. “He has to know that pronouncing something does not make it happen,” said one senior member of the royal family. The war in Yemen is regularly framed as “a campaign to stop Hezbollah from entrenching to our east”. So when Prince Mohammed summoned Hariri to Lebanon late last year and told him to resign as prime minister, rattled regional leaders sent envoys on frantic missions to Washington, Paris and London, who all urged the crown prince to back down. Chastened by the experience, both he and King Salman received Hariri in Riyadh on Saturday, a day before the prince departed for Egypt, the first stop on his tour.

Source: The Guardian March 05, 2018 04:52 UTC