Saudi Arabia: Turki drums home importance of Syria

The absence of regular or reliable insights into what goes on in the minds of the senior Al-Saud acts as a loudspeaker for the views of Prince Turki Al-Faisal, one of the few Saudi royals who is willing to discuss policy. His willingness to talk in public, and his ease in the English language, have encouraged western media and analysts to describe him as “influential”, and hang on his every word.Certainly, Prince Turki’s suggestion that all that he knows he “read[s] in the newspapers” – as he told a gathering at the London offices of the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) think tank on 2 December – is a little disingenuous