Skip to content

Jamal Khashoggi: One-man rule 'bad' for Saudi Arabia

Saudi journalist and commentator Jamal Khashoggi, who is in self-exile, says Saudi Arabia needs reform but is concerned about recent events in the kingdom.

He told Hardtalk's Stephen Sackur: "We need reform but one-man rule is bad in any country, whether we are talking about Saudi Arabia or Germany or Iraq."

A number of Saudi royal figures, ministers and businessmen have been arrested in recent days in what has been described as an anti-corruption drive.

You can see the Hardtalk interview in full on Thursday 9 November on BBC World News and the BBC News Channel and after on BBC iPlayer.

13 November 2017

Explore More

BBC News

East of England weather forecast

Men can be seen standing near the broken plane

Footage shows survivors walking from crashed Azerbaijani plane

Jean McKenzie wearing a cream coat standing by a busy street in Seoul in the evening

What just happened in South Korea?

A back-and-white image of former Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh speaking in front of a microphone

Former Indian PM Manmohan Singh: In his own words

A wooden bookshelf full of old books. The majority on the left have been attached to the shelf with large metal chains, which are dangling off the edge.

The library where books are kept under lock and key

Lydia Hepworth bites an orange

Ambulance crew reunite with mum and baby they saved

Former prisoner Lee Jack, wearing a black coat, smiles while looking at the camera - he's standing behind a cafe counter with cakes and biscuits in glass jars

The cafe helping prisoners escape a life of crime

Tayside & Central Scotland

Manmohan Singh

Watch: Former Indian PM Manmohan Singh's life and legacy

Stacey, Jason, Nessa, Smithy and Gavin laughing on a sofa.

What do fans think of the Gavin & Stacey finale?

Runners dressed in Santa hats line up on the beach ready to run into the sea.

Watch: Hundreds run into sea at Boxing Day dips

Group of around 30 people in front of a snow house with someone dressed as Santa on the roof.

The Glaswegian who spends Christmas in Antarctica

Big Zuu stands in a Christmas-decorated kitchen

Big Zuu takes on Christmas leftovers

Charles Cavey in his black, tubular bin with his arms, and guitar neck protruding from the side holes. The black bin has LITTER in gold writing on its side

Meet the man who busks from inside a litter bin

Character Jesse Chadwick dressed in a wedding suit hugs smiling wife Gail in the back of a car.

Watch: Helen Worth's final scene as Gail after 50 years

King Charles standing in the chapel decorated with Christmas trees and white lights.

Watch: King speaks of 'pride' at unity shown after riots

Space crew on ISS

Watch: ISS crew sends Christmas greetings from space

Science & Environment

A pork pie

Pork pie shop's unique creations for Christmas

Christmas Day hike

'Christmas Day hikes have been life-changing'

A black and white image of a popular 1950s television puppet called Hank the Cowboy

What London's children got for Christmas in 1952

Queen smiling into the camera in 1957.

Archive: Queen's first televised Christmas message

Feras Killani, in glasses and a t-shirt and jeans, with dust on his arm, poiints down a damaged street towards a group of people

Watch: BBC reporter returns to childhood home destroyed in Syria civil war

Feras Killani grew up in Yarmouk in Damascus, which saw brutal fighting between rebel and government forces.

Men sat in a line in a Syrian prison cell

BBC goes inside Syrian prison holding IS detainees

Orla Guerin visits Al-Sina prison in north-eastern Syria, where many suspected fighters have been held for years.

Ahmed al-Sharaa, wearing a black suit, walking with the BBC's Jeremy Bowen

Watch: BBC speaks to Syrian rebel leader Ahmed al-Sharaa

Sharaa led the rebel offensive that toppled the Assad regime in Syria less than two weeks ago.

Dancing crowds in Aleppo celebrate end of Assad regime

Watch: Dancing crowds in Aleppo celebrate end of Assad regime

The BBC's Hugo Bachega sees Syrians dancing, waving flags and making peace signs in Aleppo.

Lina Sinjab wearing a pink cardigan at a rally in Damascus

Songs and celebrations at Damascus rally

The BBC's Lina Sinjab says there is a joyous mood in the Syrian capital, as people mark the end of the Assad regime.

Bowen looks at the camera against a backdrop of lush furnishings

Jeremy Bowen: Assad's palace, once a symbol of power, now an empty shell

The BBC's international editor returns to Bashar al-Assad's presidential palace, where he interviewed him in 2015.

Jeremy Bowen walking with a crowd of people in Damascus heading towards what they believe is a public execution

BBC sees crowd surge over rumoured execution of Assad henchman

The BBC sees a crowd surge in Damascus as rumours spread that a hated Assad henchman is about to be executed.

Five male Syrian rebels hold two Syrian flags with their arms raised in celebration standing over the burned gravesite of Hafez al-Assad.

Syria rebels burn tomb of Bashar al-Assad's father

Video shows Syrian rebel fighters gather around the burning tomb of the late president Hafez al-Assad.

A woman in the passenger seat of a car welcomes the news that Assad has been overthrown

Relatives of those killed and imprisoned react after Assad's fall

Some Syrians are hopeful that loved ones detained under the Assad regime may still be alive.

Blue road sign which has 'welcome to Syria' written on it

Celebratory gunfire as Syrians cross border from Lebanon

Footage shows the Mansaa border crossing between Lebanon and Syria after rebel groups seized Damascus on Sunday.

The BBC's Lina Sinjab reporting from Damascus, Syria

'People are seizing the moment to enjoy victory'

Lina Sinjab in Damascus says people find it hard to believe that 54 years of the Assad dynasty have ended.

A woman is filmed in a prison in Syria as rebels free inmates

Women prisoners told 'you can go out now' by Syrian rebels

The video, authenticated by AP news, purports to show rebels freeing dozens of inmates.

Lina Sinjab speaks to camera, as a fire burns behind her, in the night sky

BBC reporter: 'First time I've come to Syria without fear of arrest'

A Syrian herself, Lina Sinjab says this is the first time she's entered the country "without fear of detention".

The BBC's Lina Sinjab pointing towards the house belonging to Bashar al-Assad with people walking in front of it

Watch: BBC sees looting at Bashar al-Assad's residence

BBC Middle East correspondent Lina Sinjab describes chaotic scenes in the Syrian capital.

Lina Sinjab in Damascus

BBC in Umayyad Square amid deafening gunfire

Rebel fighters and members of the public have gathered in Damascus to celebrate the end of President Assad's regime.

The interior of Assad residence

Watch: Assad residence stormed in Damascus

Syrians enter an Assad residence in the capital city after the fall of the president.

Woman celebrates in Damascus

Watch: The final hours of the Assad regime

After years in power, Syria's President Bashar al-Assad was toppled with surprising speed.

Barbara Plett-Usher in Damascus

Watch: BBC reports from inside Damascus

The BBC's Barbara Plett-Usher says everyone in the Syrian capital is "waiting to see what will happen next".

People on top of a tank, some with their arms in the air and some with their phones to hand

Crowds gather in Damascus after rebels declare city 'free'

Rebel forces say they have captured Damascus and that President Assad has fled the Syrian capital.

Statue being torn down

Statue of Bashar al-Assad's father toppled in Damascus suburb

Protesters tear down a statue of President Bashar al- Assad's father, the former president Hafez al-Assad, in a suburb of Damascus.