MBS Gets Cold Shoulder in Algeria, Delays Jordan Visit

Local Editor

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman [MBS] postponed a planned visit to Jordan after facing the cold shoulder in Algeria, where the country’s President Abdelaziz Bouteflika scrapped a meeting with him, citing flu.

Struggling over the past weeks to get rid of a scandal over the gruesome murder of dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, MBS arrived in Algeria late Sunday for a two-day visit after a stop in Mauritania.

The trip is part of a tour of Arab countries that the Saudi crown prince has resumed after attending the G20 summit in Argentina on the weekend. MBS traveled to the UAE, Bahrain, Egypt and Tunisia before the event.

His visits were overshadowed by Khashoggi’s assassination inside Riyadh’s Istanbul consulate in early October – which is believed to have been ordered by the powerful prince – as well as the bloody war he has been leading against Yemen since early 2015.

On Monday, the Algerian presidency said in a statement that Bouteflika had been unable to receive the visiting Saudi crown prince due to “acute flu.”

Meanwhile, Algeria’s largest Islamic party, the Movement of Society for Peace [MSP], criticized Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia for welcoming bin Salman, saying: “Those who roll out the red carpet for bin Salman do not care about Algeria.”

MSP head Abderrazak Makri also accused Algerian politicians of being corrupted by Saudi money.

“Our rulers have destroyed the country’s economy and then bin Salman drowned them in their financial crisis by reducing oil prices in response to [US President Donald] Trump’s orders,” he said.

“They lost the Algerian dignity and manhood, so they accepted to be bribed by the killer of Yemeni children with his ill-earned dollars through the robbing of the resources of the Arabian Peninsula after the imprisonment and killing of its free citizens,” the politician added.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team