Once shunned, Saudi crown prince is Trump’s guest of honour. Canada is warming up, too

For a leader whose toxicity over a horrific killing made him a pariah, Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has come a remarkably long way.

On Tuesday night, the kingdom‘s 40-year-old crown prince, known as MBS, was feted by U.S. President Donald Trump at a black-tie state banquet at the White House — a day after Trump announced the U.S. would sell Saudi Arabia the world's most advanced military aircraft, the F-35.

It completed what some analysts have likened to a “comeback tour” — a reset that could also have major implications for Canada.

“This is a country that is too big, too important regionally, too important globally," said Dennis Horak, who was Canada's ambassador to Saudi Arabia from 2015-18.

“Under the current circumstances, with Canada looking to diversify its economic partnerships and look for different sources of investment, Saudi Arabia is absolutely too big to ignore."

It was seven years ago, in October 2018, that Saudi agents lying in wait at their country's Turkish consulate in Istanbul used a bone saw to cut up the body of Washington Post columnist and MBS critic Jamal Khashoggi after he was strangled to death, investigators found.

The Saudi government called Khashoggi's killing a "rogue operation," but U.S. intelligence agencies believe the hit could not have happened without MBS’s authorization.

Trump, however, indicated he believes otherwise.

When faced with an awkward question from a journalist about Khashoggi's killing at an Oval Office press conference on Tuesday, with MBS sitting right beside him, Trump instead belittled the victim and gave his guest cover.

“A lot of people didn't like that gentleman that you're talking about. Whether you like him or didn't like him, things happen. But he [MBS] knew nothing about it."

While many Western countries quickly put as much distance as they could between themselves and the unpredictable crown prince, Canada’s relationship was frostier than most.   

Two months earlier, a spat over human rights, punctuated by calls from Canada to release imprisoned Saudi activists, escalated into a full-blown diplomatic rift. It led to Horak’s expulsion as the ambassador in Riyadh and the effective elimination of diplomatic ties for the next five years.

While then-U.S. president Joe Biden took the first step in the crown prince’s redemption by fist-bumping MBS in 2022, it was Trump who put the process on the fast track.

In his second term, the U.S. president made Saudi Arabia the highlight of his first international trip in May with a lavish visit to Riyadh, and analysts say MBS’s trip to Washington completed the country's international rehabilitation — at least in Trump’s eyes.