MADRID, July 15 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The British government is finalizing details of a state visit by the Saudi crown prince, Mohamed bin Salman, to take place sometime in October or November this year, which will be the first appearance of an ‘in fact’ Saudi leader on British soil since the scandal surrounding the killing of journalist Jamal Jashogi in Istanbul and where his heirs are engaged by US security agencies.

For now, official British sources have confirmed to the ‘Financial Times’ that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s government has extended an invitation to the Saudi Royal House, although the exact travel logistics are still pending agreement. “It’s something that suits them, because we need them more than they need us,” according to one of the sources.

It should be remembered that, last year, then British Prime Minister Boris Johnson had a meeting with Bin Salmán in Riyadh and several British ministers have visited the kingdom since the murder of the journalist. The crown prince visited France last year, where he met French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris.

Publicly, Downing Street declined to comment on such an invitation. A spokesman for the British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, has indicated that, should anything be announced, details “will be released as usual” before noting that the Prime Minister stated that Jashogi’s murder was a “horrific crime”. and that “Saudi Arabia must ensure that such atrocities never happen again.”

It should be remembered that the United States Central Intelligence Agency, the CIA, directly implicated Bin Salman in the 2018 murder of the journalist in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. However, the heiress fled in November 2022 from another lawsuit, filed by Jashogi’s fiancé, Hatice Cengiz, given her diplomatic immunity as a foreign head of state.