By Cassandra Garrison

ALGIERS (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman will arrive in Algeria on Sunday for a two-day visit, Algerian state news agency APS said, resuming his tour of Arab countries after the G20 summit in Argentina.

Before the G20 summit the heir to the throne of the world’s top oil exporter visited the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Egypt and Tunisia.

It is his first trip abroad since the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, which has strained Saudi Arabia’s ties with the West and battered the prince’s image abroad.

Saudi Arabia has said the prince had no prior knowledge ofthe murder. After offering numerous contradictory explanations,Riyadh said last month that Khashoggi had been killed and hisbody dismembered when negotiations to persuade him to return toSaudi Arabia failed.

Algerian-Saudi investments and trade relations such as the oil and petrochemical sectors would be discussed, APS said.
Algeria’s energy minister Mustapha Guitouni said last week that global oil prices would not be on the agenda.

The two moments captured the dilemma facing world leaders at the Group of 20 summit in Buenos Aires this weekend: How to deal with the crown prince, who is dogged by controversy over the murder of a Saudi journalist but is also de facto leader of a rich, oil-producing kingdom that is a major global investor.

To be sure Putin’s exuberant greeting of the prince was seen as over the top and promptly went viral. But, while leaders appeared to ignore Prince Mohammed on stage during the “family photo,” many went on to have closed-door bilateral meetings with him during the two-day summit.

The crown prince, facing a global outcry over the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in a Saudi consulate in Istanbul six weeks ago, had conversations with at least 12 world leaders.

Three of them, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, British Prime Minister Theresa May and French President Emmanuel Macron, said publicly they had pressed Prince Mohammed for a full investigation into the murder.

Saudi Arabia has said the prince had no prior knowledge of the murder of the prominent Saudi journalist. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has said the killing was ordered by the highest level of Saudi leadership but probably not from King Salman, putting the spotlight instead on the 33-year-old crown prince.

Trudeau said he had a frank conversation with the prince at a leaders’ dinner on Friday, telling him there was “a need for better answers on the killing of Khashoggi.” May said she called for a full, credible and transparent investigation, while Macron insisted the crown prince allow international investigators to take part in any inquiry.

U.S. President Donald Trump, who has defended U.S. ties with Saudi Arabia, “exchanged pleasantries” with the crown prince, the White House said. Trump has said it may never be known if Prince Mohammed ordered the killing or not. Sources say the CIA believes the crown prince ordered the killing.

Source: Reuters