From Oman in the east to Morocco in the west, Middle East and north African royalty have been closely monitoring plans for the Queen’s funeral, but with days to go until the biggest event in modern royal history, they are unlikely to travel to London in numbers.
Monarchies have sought to divine meaning from protocol arrangements, and are largely underwhelmed by what they have seen.
An expectation that the kings and presidents of the region would board a bus to travel to Westminster Abbey has not been received well. Nor have mooted seating plans that place regional royals and presidents on pews well behind Commonwealth leaders who were an important part of the Queen’s orbit, but are often less influential when it comes to Britain’s trade and security ties.
Leaders of Kuwait, the UAE and Saudi Arabia have been uncertain who to send to London to what would be one of the biggest gatherings of global leaders in decades. Kuwait is thought to be sending its crown prince, and Abu Dhabi a vice-president. Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader, Mohammed bin Salman, is thought to still be planning to travel – for what would be his first trip to the UK since the death of the dissident Jamal Khashoggi – however, a final decision has not been made, 72 hours from dignitaries gathering. » | Martin Chulov, Middle East correspondent | Friday, September 16, 2022
