Comment I imagine I live in a vertical, car-free metropolis with a temperate climate, housed in twin apartment buildings over 100 miles long, with hanging gardens and stunning views. In this Shangri-La, there is no traffic or pollution, only green space, amenities and high-speed mass transit. The twist is that it is in Saudi Arabia, in a remote part of the desert, and that you can’t move there anytime soon, because it only exists in promotional videos — the latest pet project of the country’s crown prince and de facto leader, Mohammed bin Salman, aka MBS. This week, the prince revealed new details about the project, versions of which he has been talking about for years, calling it a “cultural revolution” that will challenge “traditional … horizontal cities”. About 100 miles long and one-eighth of a mile wide, the walled city would form the “infrastructural backbone” of a larger megacity, known as Neom, planned for northwestern Saudi Arabia. The presentation in Jiddah on Monday — including the elegant (but, some would say, dystopian) promotional images and talk of an IPO — sparked a days-long media and PR blitz. Dubai-based Gulf News called it “Saudi Arabia’s megacity of the future”, while others described the ambitions as “amazing”. According to the tech news site Verge, the promotional plans for the city look like “the result of some very exciting marketing execs and a fortnight of all-nighters in Blender.” “If you have money, you should ‘raise the bar,’” Mohammed said at the unveiling of the project in Jeddah, Reuters reported. “Why copy normal cities?” he added. Saudi crown prince to meet Macron as Khashoggi team urges prosecution in France The new details and material were grained it heightens global interest in the futuristic masterpiece just as Mohammed departed on Tuesday for his first official trip to Europe since the 2018 killing of Saudi journalist and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi drew international condemnation. Government critics were quick to point out what appears to be smart timing. “MBS does it again: reviving a dystopian vanity project to distract from an abysmal human rights record, while indifferent Western leaders welcome him after learning to hide his fingerprints of ongoing atrocities,” said Khalid Aljabri, a Saudi a national whose brothers were imprisoned and now live in exile in the United States. The Saudi embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The prince was eager to end his pariah status and restore the oil-rich kingdom’s image as a long-term global power with modern amenities and a diverse economy. In the past, he has used Neom, a $500 billion project owned by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, as a “key tool to consolidate his power” and “key to his diplomatic efforts,” said Ali Dogan, a researcher at Leibniz -Berlin-based Zentrum Moderner Orient, he wrote last year. Saudi Arabia’s city of the future has women in sports bras and co-working offices The prince was in France on Thursday, where he was due to meet French President Emmanuel Macron at the presidential palace. Earlier this week, Mohammed flew to Athens and signed several bilateral deals, including an energy deal that would allow Saudi Arabia to export electricity to Greece. Greek Development Minister Adonis Georgiadis welcomed what he said was the kingdom’s move toward a “new era of humanity in renewable energy and new technology,” according to the Guardian. “Three years after Khashoggi’s murder, Greece made it clear this week that politicians would rather talk about energy than about the star journalist dismembered by Saudi agents in Istanbul,” the paper said. Mohammed had previously been shunned by both the Biden administration and European governments after US intelligence concluded he authorized the operation that led to Khashoggi’s death inside the Saudi consulate in Turkey’s largest city. But as Western nations grapple with steep Russian energy cuts and rising gas prices as a result of the war in Ukraine, some leaders have softened their stances, playing down concerns about the country’s human rights record while emphasizing what officials they say it is an important role of Riyadh as a strategic partner. . Saudi Arabia has the second largest proven oil reserves in the world, according to the US Energy Information Administration. “The relationship with Saudi Arabia is bigger than any one person,” Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said at a news conference on the same day the US intelligence assessment was released last year. Earlier this month, President Biden traveled to Jeddah to meet with several Middle Eastern leaders, including Mohammed, greeting the prince with a fist bump that drew criticism even from within his own party. Biden said he confronted the prince directly about the Khashoggi murder, “making it clear what I thought about it at the time and what I think about it now.” Rights groups say the administration needs to push harder. “The reality is that for Saudi Arabia, nothing would be as ground-breaking, sustainable or futuristic for the country as basic dignity and human rights for the people under its jurisdiction,” said Bethany Alhaidari, the case manager. of Saudi Arabia to the Freedom Initiative, an organization he supports. for prisoners held illegally in the Middle East.
