According to Politico, “The guests staying at the 222-room hotel for the next couple of days are all part of the 79-year-old king’s entourage of Saudi diplomats, family members and assistants.”
The Saudi billionaire monarch is in Washington for his first White House meeting with President Barack Obama, reportedly to discuss matters pertaining to the recent U.S.-Iran nuclear deal and the Saudi-led intervention in Yemen, among other issues.
Following the nuclear deal with Iran, reports mentioned diplomatic tensions between Saudi Arabia and the United States amid Saudi apprehension on Iran’s (Shiite) influence in the Middle East politics.
Salman bin Abdulaziz became the monarch in January following the death of his half-brother King Abdullah.
Spectators saw a fleet of luxury cars in front of the hotel and red carpets laid down even in the parking lot.
Politico reported that the Four Seasons hotel redecorated, rolling out red carpet to for the Saudi Royals. Almost everything has a golden touch, keeping in mind the aesthetic taste of the royal family.
The famed Saudi profligacy is nothing new. Just last month, the monarch reserved an entire beach in the French Riviera to accommodate a 1,000-member party during the King’s vacation, according to reports.
The installation of an elevator from the Mirandole beach to the villa reportedly miffed some beach-going residents who objected to allowing King Salman this royal privilege.
And the king shortened the planned three-week vacation following criticism against “the temporary privatization of public land.”
With the Syrian refugee crisis hogging media headlines, the profligate waste of wealth is being questioned, with expectations that Saudi Arabia and the wealthy Arab states in the Persian Gulf should do much more to help their neighbor.
According to a report by Amnesty International, “six gulf countries — Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Bahrain — have offered zero resettlement places to Syrian refugees.”
It is pertinent to note that none of these countries are signatories of the United Nations’ 1951 Refugee Convention, which outlines refugee rights and defines the duties of signatory states to safeguard them.
The image of a drowned Syrian toddler, his dead body lying unattended on a Turkish beach last week highlighted the chilling plight of the Syrian refugees fleeing a relentless civil war.
