A Pakistani magazine has claimed that Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman had called back his private jet from Canada to New York after being upset over certain actions of Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan.
The magazine stated that Prince Salman was “alienated” with “some dimensions” of Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khans actions on the sidelines of the UNGA session in New York last month, that he ordered his “private jet to disembowel the Pakistani delegation” as a consequence.
The Saudi Crown Prince had given his private jet to Imran Khan to travel to the US on a week-long visit and to visit the 74th session of the United Nations General Assembly.
Ahead of the UNGA session, Khan had first visited Riyadh and held talks with Prince Salman.
While departing for New York from Jeddah, the Saudi Crown Prince stopped Khan from embarking a commercial flight to the US and asked him to fly on board his private jet as he could not let his guest travel in a commercial plane, Pakistani media reports had said.
But while Khan was returning to Islamabad from New York on September 28, it was reported that the Saudi plane developed a technical glitch following which the Prime Minister and his delegation returned to New York and then took a commercial flight back to Pakistan.
However, the weekly magazine has contradicted this claim and in an article published on October 4.
It said: “The Saudi Crown Prince, Mohammad bin Salman, was so alienated by some dimensions of the Pakistani Prime Minister’s diplomacy in New York – he couldn’t have been happy at the prospect of Imran Khan, (Turkish President) Recep Tayyip Erdogan and (Malaysian Prime Minister) Mahathir Mohammad planning to jointly represent the Islamic bloc, nor with Pakistan’s interlocution with Iran without his explicit approval…
“…He visibly snubbed Imran by ordering his private jet to disembowel the Pakistani delegation…”
The Pakistan government, according to the country’s media reports, has categorically dismissed the report as “utter fabrication”.
“This is a cooked up story. The leaders of Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have good relations. The conclusion of Khan’s meeting with the Turkish and Malay leaders is pure fiction. The report is aimed at political vendetta. We dismiss this report,” a government spokesman said.