A year earlier Malpass was one of the first high-profile international figures to visit Riyadh and praise the regime's economic management in the wake of the murder of Jamal Khashoggi in Saudi Arabia's consulate in Istanbul...

Deal backersThe US administration's most notable Middle East policy moves so far have been its outreach to Iran and its rebuke to Saudi Arabia over Yemen and the Jamal Khashoggi murder...

In brushing off African and Western objections to his high-handed behaviour Assoumani appears to be relying on new friends in the Gulf including Saudi Arabia which he obsequiously courted with fulsome support over the Jamal Khashoggi murder and a crackdown on Comoros's small Shiite minority...