Khashoggi Case Makes MBS and Saudi Arabia 'Toxic,' Analyst Says - Bloomberg

Khashoggi Case Makes MBS and Saudi Arabia 'Toxic,' Analyst Says - Bloomberg:

Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is miscalculating that the scandal over his role in the murder of a Washington Post columnist will fade away, starting with his presence this weekend at the G-20 meeting of global leaders in Argentina.

"He'll have his picture with world leaders and say, 'See, it's all coming back to normal,'" said Bruce Riedel, a leading U.S. expert on the Middle East. "He's wrong. Saudi Arabia and MBS now are toxic, and will be as long as he's in power."

Riedel's assessment is harsher on the crown prince than that of most other analysts, but his credentials make it well worth considering. Now a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, he was for three decades a top Middle East expert at the Central Intelligence Agency and the White House. He wrote a book last year on U.S.-Saudi relations, "Kings and Presidents: Saudi Arabia and the United States Since FDR."