Here’s what’s happened since last week’s updates: Saudi crown prince's future as king is in peril over Khashoggi: US Secretary of State

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman acknowledged the resilience of Qatar’s “strong economy” in a surprising shift of tone for the man who has spent more than a year enforcing an embargo against the small gas-rich emirate, reported Bloomberg.

Qatar is witnessing a major economic transformation, said Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, speaking at the Future Investment Initiative conference in Riyadh as he explained his vision for the Middle East’s place in the world.

“Even Qatar, despite our differences with them, has a very strong economy and will be very different” in the next five years."

The comments came as Prince Mohammed is under growing international pressure to fully explain the killing in Istanbul of dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi on Oct. 2, a murder which officials in Turkey have suggested may have been ordered by the prince himself.

According to the Bloomberg report, shortly before he spoke at the conference, Prince Mohammed -- Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler -- telephoned Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has called on all those responsible for the critic’s murder to be punished, even top officials.

The Saudi crown prince has been under considerable pressure recently in light of the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul by an 18-man Saudi hit squad on October 2.

Saudi Arabia and three of its Arab allies hit Qatar with the economic and diplomatic boycott over its links to Iran and alleged funding of terrorism, a charge Doha denies.

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(Cover photo source: www.argaam.com)

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Khadiza Begum

Content Writer

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