Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s scheduled appearance at the G20 summit next week in Buenos Aires presents world leaders with a moment of truth they would rather avoid.

Western powers such as the US, UK and France have been happy to keep up arms sales to Riyadh despite the carnage in Yemen and the threat of the worst famine the world has seen in a generation, for which Saudi Arabia bears heavy responsibility.

Even after the international outcry over the murder of the Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, that multi-billion dollar weapons trade has continued unabated.

Save the Children estimates that 85,000 children under the age of five have died in Yemen from extreme hunger or disease since the war began nearly four years ago, and up to 14 million people are at risk of famine, due in large part to the stranglehold the Saudi-led coalition has clamped on the Yemeni economy. And more damning evidence of the Saudi court’s involvement in Khashoggi’s grisly execution emerges each day.

“It is a significant moment,” said Bruce Riedel, a veteran CIA official and now a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. “We have a crown prince for whom the Khashoggi thing is only one part of reckless and dangerous policies across the region, in Yemen and Lebanon and elsewhere.”

The Guardian