Saudi Arabia Crackdown Takes A Turn - MBS Gets A Powerful Reminder

Right, so in a tantrum worthy of a toddler denied their pudding because they haven’t eaten their tea, Saudi Arabia has begun to arrest American citizens for the unforgivable crime of having taken a few photos during the recent Ansarallah attacks on King Khalid International Airport. The crackdown is now written into an official US security warning no less, which is not exactly the TripAdvisor recommendation Mohammed Bin Salman was hoping for either, but hey, who’s in charge here right? Riyadh airport has been hit and flights disrupted, putting the gateway to the Saudi capital at risk. Delta have as a consequence of that, pushed its much-publicised Atlanta-to-Riyadh launch back to March of next year, citing regional developments and passenger and staff safety. And now an administrative building at Aramco’s headquarters has been struck too. So for MBS, who wants Saudi Arabia seen as somewhere to visit and do business, that’s a problem reaching well beyond a few embarrassing photographs and now his side are going around threatening people on top of that.

MBS's army of public relations workers will not be able to put a gloss on this disgrace in the Visit Saudi brochures, whatever MBS and his cronies may try, will they? His thugs can confiscate phones, and throw tourists in prison if they take a picture, but they can’t make the missiles stop, or muzzle foreign governments from advising their citizens, or bully an airline into following his whims. He’s made this mess for himself making a bigger and bigger hole for himself and now it seems the solution he’s reached for involves grabbing a shovel to keep on digging.

The crackdown was supposed to bury bad news under the carpet, but it only makes the country's mistreatment of its foreign guests front-page news, while the chaos has moved from the airport's baggage claim area to the company's boardroom. With this much farce on show, you’d think Donald Trump was in charge here wouldn’t you?