Despite years of bad publicity and renewed suspicion of its royal family, Saudi Arabia has a message for the United States: It’s ready to do business.

Fahad Nazer, a spokesman for the Saudi embassy in Washington, D.C. delivered that chamber-of-commerce styled pitch Wednesday afternoon in a webinar with the Colorado Springs World Affairs Council.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is eager to usher his country forward, moving away from an economy built on fossil fuel to a broader private sector, including tourism, sports and entertainment industries that haven’t existed there to date. The plan to remake Saudi Arabia is called Vision 2030.

“We want American companies to come to Saudi Arabia to build offices, to build factories, to invest in our country and invest in our youth,” he said. “With Vision 2030, we are opening up to the world.”

Saudi Arabia began issuing tourist visas for the first time last year, Nazer said, noting the  country’s abundant historical sites, pristine beaches and sprawling mountain trails.

Saudi Arabia has to contend with its past, however.

Colorado Politics asked about the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi dissident and columnist for The Washington Post, who was detained and assassinated by elite operatives who reported directly to Prince Salman in 2018. The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency concluded that the prince ordered the assassination.

“Let me make this very clear: The murder of Jamal Khashoggi was a horrendous crime,” Nazer said. “It was a heinous crime. It was something that has never happened in our history. It is simply not how we do things. It was an egregious affront not only to our values but an egregious violation of our laws.”

He said Saudi authorities are analyzing what happened to make sure it never happens again.

“Nobody was more shocked by this than us Saudi people,” Nazer said. 

The Saudi government characterized the killing as a rogue operation. Of at least 18 people Turkish authorities say participated in the scheme, five men were sentenced to death in 2019, but their sentences were commuted by a Saudi court to 20 years.

International suspicion has metastasized to a point that Meghan Markle, the duchess of Sussex, was criticized this week for her TV interview with Oprah Winfrey this week, during which she wore earrings given to Queen Elizabeth in 2018 by Prince Salman, just three weeks after Khashoggi’s murder.

President Biden is assessing the U.S. relationship with Saudi Arabia, because of human rights concerns. In his first phone call as president with King Salman last month, Biden stressed the  U.S. commitment to human rights and the rule of law.

Nazer talked Wednesday about the long U.S.-Saudi alliance, spanning Republican and Democratic administrations. He noted that Saudi soldiers fought “side by side” with Americans in expelling Iraq from Kuwait in 1990 and again in 2014 when they took on ISIS in Syria and Iraq.

The two countries have a common interest in controlling Iran’s efforts to destabilize the region and to control Islamic terrorism.

However, Saudi Arabia only allowed women to drive only in 2018. Nazer said that women’s rights had already expanded in every other sector for years, and today Saudi women inhabit all professions and public services.

Last year, the Saudis’ feud with Russia over oil production – two of the world’s largest producers – destabilized the energy market which, coupled with plummeting demand in the pandemic harmed production markets,  included Colorado.

The not-for-profit Colorado Springs World Affairs Council is a non-partisan educational organization that tries to broaden the public’s understanding of the dynamics shaping humanitarian policies, economics, education and understanding around the globe.

The local chapter is part of World Affairs Councils of America, which is made up of 93 local councils in 40 states. The global affairs organization was created in 1947, in the same wave of concern that created the United Nations that year.

Colorado has four councils. Besides Colorado Springs, there are councils in Denver, Littleton and Grand Junction. The Colorado Springs chapter began in 1979.