Kushner became key friend for Saudis
In spite of restrictions, Jared Kushner had informal talks with Prince Mohammed bin Salman, ex-White House officials said.
Senior U.S. officials were worried. Since the early months of the Trump administration, Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and Middle East adviser, had been having private, informal conversations with Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the favorite son of Saudi Arabia’s king.
Given Kushner’s political inexperience, the private exchanges could make him susceptible to Saudi manip- ulation, said three former senior U.S. officials. In an effort to tighten practices at the White House, a new chief of staff tried to reimpose long-standing procedures stipulating that National Security Council staff members should participate in all calls with foreign leaders.
But even with the restrictions in place, Kushner, 37, and Crown Prince Moham- med, 33, kept chatti n g, according to three former White House officials and two others briefed by the Saudi royal court. In fact, they said, the two men were on a firstname basis in text messages and phone calls.
The exchanges continued even after the Oct. 2 killing of Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi journalist ambushed and dismembered by Saudi agents, according to two former senior U.S. officials.
As the killing set off a firestorm and U.S. intelligence agencies concluded it was ordered by Crown Prince Mohammed, Kushner became the prince’s most important defender inside the White House, people familiar with its internal deliberations say.
Kushner’s support for Crown Prince Mohammed in the moment of crisis is a striking demonstration of a bond that has helped draw President Donald Trump into an embrace of Saudi Arabia as one of his most important international allies.
But the ties between Kush- ner and the prince did not happen on their own. The prince and his advisers, eager to enlist U.S. support for his hawkish policies and con- solidation of power, cultivated the relationship with Kushner for more than two years, according to docu- ments, emails and text messages reviewed by The Times.
A delegation of Saudis close to the prince visited the United States as early as the month Trump was elected, the documents show, and brought back a report identifying Kushner as a crucial focal point in the courtship of the new administration.
Even then, before the inauguration, the Saudis were trying to position themselves as essential allies who could help the Trump administration fulfill its campaign pledges. In addition to offering to help resolve the dispute between Israel and the Palestinians, the Saudis offered hundreds of billions of dollars in deals to buy U.S. weapons and invest in U.S. infrastructure.
“The inner circle is predominantly deal-makers who lack familiarity with political customs and deep institu- tions, and they support Jared Kushner,” the Saudi delegation wrote of the incoming administration in a slide presentation obtained by a Lebanese newspaper, which provided it to The Times.
The courtship of Kushner appears to have worked.
“The relationship between Jared Kushner and Moham- med bin Salman constitutes the foundation of the Trump policy not just toward Saudi Arabia but toward the region,” said Martin Indyk, a fellow at the Council on Foreign Rela- tions and a former Middle East envoy. The administration’s reliance on the Saudis in the peace process, its support for the kingdom’s feud with Qatar, a U.S. ally, and its backing of the Saudi-led inter- vention in Yemen, he said, all grew out of “that bromance.” New York Times writers David D. Kirkpatrick, Ben Hubbard, Mark Landler and Mark Mazzetti contributed to this report