Saudi crown prince to meet American icon Oprah Winfrey

Saudi Arabia’s crown prince Mohammad bin Salman might soon be meeting American icon Oprah Winfrey during his ongoing United States tour, a leaked copy of his itinerary suggests.

The 36-page document shows Mohammad bin Salman to meet Winfrey in Los Angeles right before his two-week tour ends, according to international media reports. However, Winfrey’s representative and the Saudi embassy in Washington have not commented on the document’s authenticity.

The crown prince is also going to sit down with editorial boards of Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times and Wall Street Journal.

The new heir to Saudi throne will also give interviews to Vanity Fair and Time magazines. The prince, also known as MBS, is scheduled to meet with several business owners, media personalities and political figures.

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From the business world, crown prince is expected to meet CEOs of Amazon, Uber, Microsoft, The Walt Disney and Apple. He will also see Bill Gates. Current government officials included on his schedule are US vice president, senior advisor and unofficial Middle East envoy, CIA director, defense secretary and national security advisor.

Before finishing his tour, crown prince will also be meeting past luminaries Barack Obama and Condoleezza Rice. Bin Salman is currently in New York and will travel on to other cities such as Houston, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle.

According to Khaleej Times, following the crown prince's visit, America has signed off on a $670 million arms sale to Saudi Arabia. The sale of thousands of anti-tank missiles and helicopters has been approved by the US State Department.

“Change in Saudi Arabia is still pretty cosmetic. But given that everyone in the US has rolled out the red carpet for him, the crown prince really is the current darling of the west,” The Independent quoted Nader Hashemi, director of the Centre for Middle East Studies at University of Denver’s Josef Korbel School of International Studies.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2018