Saudi Prince Looks to G-20 to Shift Focus From Khashoggi, Yemen - Bloomberg:
Fiddling with a string of prayer beads, Saudi palace adviser Fahad Toonsi leaned forward in his seat to share a rare story from the crown prince’s inner circle.
With the kingdom about to embark on a year in the international spotlight as host of this year’s Group of 20 gatherings, Prince Mohammed bin Salman had rejected event logos designed by some of the world’s top agencies in his pursuit of something typically Saudi. Time was running out, Toonsi told his audience of top Saudi journalists, but the prince wouldn’t budge.
They eventually chose a symbol that riffs on a traditional form of weaving by a 28-year-old local designer, Mohammed Al-Hawas. Leading the grouping “is something that calls for great pride from us as Saudis,” explained Toonsi, who’s also the head of the kingdom’s G-20 secretariat.
The top-level attention to detail reflects what’s at stake for Saudi Arabia as it welcomes leaders from the world’s biggest economies after a period in which Prince Mohammed’s reformist zeal has often been overshadowed by outrage over a murdered critic, a crackdown on dissent denounced by human rights groups, and the kingdom’s leading role in the grinding five-year war in Yemen.
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