India 'prevents MbS flying direct from Pakistan', forces him home to Riyadh first

The Saudi crown prince got a taste of his own medicine on Tuesday as India forced him to fly via Riyadh to avoid coming directly from arch-rival Pakistan, where he had been visiting.

The powerful royal and de-facto ruler who co-engineered the air blockade on Qatar that forces many Qataris to make inconvenient stopovers, returned to Riyadh on Monday as India objected to his direct arrival from Pakistan, according to Indian press reports.

Saudi Arabia and allies broke ties with Qatar in June 2017 and imposed a land, sea and air blockade of the emirate, in a failed attempt to coerce Doha to align itself with the kingdom's foreign policy.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman [MbS] concluded his visit to Pakistan on Monday and will not arrive in India until Tuesday night.

New Delhi "had reservations over his coming to India from Pakistan," confirmed India's top news agency PTI, quoting sources familiar with the matter. 

India conveyed to the Saudi authorities that a visit to New Delhi by the young royal "immediately following a stop in Islamabad would not be acceptable," reported India's Mint daily newspaper.

The report comes amid tensions between India and Pakistan triggered by a bloody attack on Indian paramilitaries in disputed Muslim-majority Kashmir last week, the most serious in the Himalayan region's history. The attack has sparked widespread calls in India for action against Pakistan. Saudi Arabia vowed to help "de-escalate" the tensions.

Read also: Valentine's Day attack worst in Kashmir since insurgency began

"Our objective is to try to de-escalate tensions between the two countries, neighbouring countries, and to see if there is a path forward to resolving those differences peacefully," Saudi minister of state for foreign affairs Adel al-Jubeir told a press conference in Islamabad on Monday.

MbS' visit to India is part of an Asian tour that began in Pakistan and will conclude in China later this week

'Pivot to Asia'

MbS' visit to India is part of an Asian tour that began in Pakistan and will conclude in China later this week.

Twitter Post

In his Pakistani stop, MbS was given a royal welcome, full with fighter-jet escort, horse-drawn carts and gold-plated gifts, which earned back Islamabad a $20 billion investment pledge and mass pardon of Pakistani prisoners held by the kingdom.

In both India and China, trade and investment are expected to top the crown prince's talks with the two Asian giants' leaders.

The trip comes as Riyadh attempts to strengthen its relations with the kingdom's allies outside the West following the Saudi state-sanctioned murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and the kingdom's role in the Yemen war.

Analysts say the tour is part of a Gulf pivot to rising Asia as a growing oil market, but also a timely demonstration to the West that the crown prince is not an international pariah.

"This is certainly a pivot to Asia for the future. MbS knows that economically the East is going to be more important than the West in the long-run particularly as they do not apply a human rights conditionality to their engagement with Saudi Arabia," Dr Andreas Krieg, assistant professor at King's College London, told The New Arab.

"While Saudi Arabia has long invested in Pakistan, it is now a partnership as the Saudis require Pakistan as an exporter of military technology and human capital. India is equally important," he added.

"All that happens as Saudi is under pressure in Washington, Brussels and Berlin where MbS is currently viewed as a persona non grata - something that nobody believes is going to change any time soon," he added.

The brutal killing of journalist Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October triggered the kingdom's biggest diplomatic crisis in years.

The CIA believe MbS ordered an operation to kill Khashoggi and say his body was dismembered and removed to a location still publicly unknown.

With input from news agencies

Follow Karim Traboulsi on Twitter: @kareemios