Saudi Arabia is attempting a comeback on the global stage one year after journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s murder, but the crisis has weakened it and undermined its de facto leader’s ambitious reforms, analysts say. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, a self-styled moderniser shaking up the conservative petro-state, was feted by global leaders and business titans before the gruesome murder in Saudi Arabia’s Istanbul consulate on October 2 last year. “The spectre of Jamal Khashoggi hangs over the kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” said Bruce Riedel, a former Central Intelligence Agency officer and author of a book on Saudi Arabia entitled “Kings and Presidents”.
