Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) is set to travel to the UK to participate in the funeral ceremony of Queen Elizabeth II and deliver his condolences to the Royal Family.
The details of MBS’s visit remain unknown but according to a Friday report by The Guardian, his attendance at the funeral might “represent an unacceptable security threat” due to the protests his presence may provoke.
It will be the Saudi crown prince’s first visit to the UK since the assassination of Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was brutally murdered at the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul almost four years ago.
At the time, the UK government imposed travel bans on a group of courtiers close to the crown prince due to their involvement in the assassination.
However, the prince himself did not go under any sanctions by the British government, in spite of a US intelligence report, which concluded that bin Salman was directly responsible for Khashoggi’s murder.
UK bans Chinese officials from attending Queen’s funeral
The reports about the infamous Saudi crown prince’s visit to the UK come as the Chinese delegation has been banned from seeing the queen’s coffin at Westminster Hall in London.
Speaker of the House of Commons Sir Lindsay Hoyle has refused a request from the delegation to attend the funeral ceremony due to sanctions China has imposed on British citizens.
Relations between Beijing and London are at odds, with a group of UK MPs expressing concerns that Chinese President Xi Jinping has been invited to the state funeral on Monday.
Queen Elizabeth II, Britain’s longest-reigning monarch, died at the age of 96, and her son Charles III proclaimed the throne.
Her passing led to an outpouring of grief in the West. It also revived the British monarchy’s colonial legacy, with people across the world seeing her as a symbol of an institution that thrived through violence, oppression, and theft.
The anti-monarchy chorus is growing louder in the United Kingdom with a spate of arrests by security agencies in recent days drawing condemnation from the country’s civil liberties campaigners.
Beyond the UK, people in countries falling under the commonwealth, from Canada to New Zealand, have also started calling for an end to centuries-old monarchical rule.
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