AS DIPLOMATIC missions go, the idea of sending Fred and Gladys to one of the world’s most secretive and controlling countries to advance the cause of reform might seem unlikely. But last night they appeared to have pulled off an unusual coup.

The pictures last week of the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall strolling arm-in-arm in Egypt, like a middle-aged holidaying couple, made them seem exactly like the pet names they use for each other, and very far from candidates to send ripples through the Arab world. As they left Saudi Arabia, however, a picture was emerging of the Prince’s extraordinary relationship with the local royal family and the Duchess’s role in advancing the cause of women.

While the couple pursued separate itineraries for most of their two-day visit to this highly segregated society, they were invited together to meet King Abdullah in front of the media.

The fact that a picture of the Duchess with the King was published on the front page of one of the tightly controlled Saudi newspapers was also a clear sign that he wanted to use the visit to advance his agenda of reform. The King has been criticised in the past by conservatives just for receiving women.

The fact that it was deemed appropriate for the Duchess merely to cover her head, not wear an abaya, and to display flesh between her scarf and her blouse was also regarded as a major step. At a lunch she was placed between the Crown Prince Sultan and Prince Naif, the Interior Minister, a significant step in a country where women still have to buy their underwear and receive advice on make-up from male shop assistants and where religious police patrol malls to ensure no improper contact between single men and women.

The Saudi authorities were understood to be pleased with the speech about faith that the Prince gave at Imam Muhammad bin Saud University. It was similar to the speech he gave in Egypt, but this time he was speaking at the bastion of conservative Islamic scholarship in Saudi Arabia.

No prominent Western figure has ever visited the university, let alone delivered a subtle but pointed message about the need for careful interpretation of sacred texts “for this time”. The President of the university called it “an historic event”.

The Prince has known King Abdullah for decades and his status as a royal and his views on Islam have earned him a position where he can stay up late into the night talking about the pace of reform in the kingdom with a frankness that more ephemeral politicians cannot or will not attempt.

His relationship was described as “a major asset” by a British diplomatic source. “He can connect with the royal family and connects with the successor generation of princes. He can talk to them in a way that Western politicians can’t. He is almost like one of the family. He is seen as someone who has a deep understanding and affection for Islam.”

This was a business trip, with no time for private painting outings to the desert with members of the royal family. The Prince visited a project for young entrepreneurs modelled on his own Prince’s Trust and a technology college training young men for trades that until recently Saudis regarded as suitable only for ex-pat workers.

The Prince is understood to be keen to promote such projects because of the high unemployment in Saudi Arabia, where 60 percent of the population is under 21. Unemployment and lack of activities to occupy young people are possible causes of the kind of discontent exploited by al-Qaeda, although Saudi officials insist that there is no link between unemployment and terrorism.

In another speech, the Prince criticised the “predominance of the car”, a sentiment not heard too often in the world’s biggest oil-producing nation, where the automobile is revered.

There were some lighter moments on the trip. He opened his speech on faith with the words: “Your excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,” and then, as he realised that there were no women in the room, he muttered “er, gentlemen”.

At the technology college he donned protective glasses and picked up a chisel to do some metalwork. Dr Ghazi Algosaibi, the Labour Minister and former ambassador to London, quipped: “Now you are becoming the Prince of nails.” The Prince pretended to hammer his chisel into the minister’s chest: “You’ve been longing to say that for years,” he said.

The Duchess attended a women’s charity that provides support and training to divorced women. Male reporters were not allowed in, but female colleagues reported that, once inside, abayas were cast aside in favour of Western clothes, including tight T-shirts. The Duchess was presented with an abaya by Princess Basma Bint Majed, a granddaughter of the late King Faisal, and told: “If you wear them all the time, beware: you’ll lose your waist and you don’t realise.” The Duchess replied: “I’m already doing it.”

On a tour of a multinational school, Heema, a nine-year-old Kenyan boy, asked her: “Are you the princess from England?” “That’s me,” said the Duchess. She was not about to stop and explain, even if it had been the source of a major constitutional debate back home.

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