Trump praises crown prince and U.S. ties to Saudia Arabia
Leaders meet at White House, discuss Middle East peace, military ties
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump welcomed Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, to the White House on Tuesday, reaffirming his embrace of an ambitious young royal bent on reforming his country and realigning the Middle East.
The last time Trump played host to Prince Mohammed at the White House, a year ago, he was jockeying for position in the court of his father, King Salman.
This time, with Trump’s unstinting support, Prince Mohammed arrived after having consolidated his position as Saudi Arabia’s heir apparent as well as a disruptive figure in the region.
“You are more than the crown prince now,” Trump said to him over lunch in the Cabinet room.
“The relationship is probably the strongest it’s ever been,” Trump said, turning to reporters. “We understand each other. Saudi Arabia is a very wealthy nation, and they’re going to give the United States some of that wealth hopefully, in the form of jobs, in the form of the purchase of the finest military equipment anywhere in the world.”
Earlier, in the Oval Office, Trump displayed a poster listing military aircraft, worth $12.5 billion, that the United States had agreed to sell to Saudi Arabia.
During the meeting, a senior administration official said, the two leaders took up an array of thorny issues: Trump’s coming decision on whether to rip up the Iran nuclear deal; Saudi Arabia’s bitter dispute with its neighbor, Qatar; and the brutal civil war in Yemen, which has led lawmakers to propose a cutoff in American support for a Saudi-led bombing campaign that has killed thousands.
Trump, the official said, urged Prince Mohammed to settle the festering battle that pits Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates against Qatar.
Prince Mohammed will be soliciting $35 billion in U.S. investment to accelerate his plan to overhaul Saudi Arabia’s infrastructure — part of his ambitious Vision 2030 plan, which seeks to modernize the kingdom and wean its reliance on oil.
Much of the itinerary on the prince’s two-week trip is outside Washington.
He plans to travel to New York, Boston, Silicon Valley, Los Angeles and Houston, visiting companies that include Apple, Google and Lockheed Martin.