“This is an Oval Office fit for a prince,” Donald Trump said when welcoming Mohammed Bin Salman to the White House, which was his first visit to the United States since 2018. The leaders discussed three main topics: on the one hand, stability in the Middle East, on the other, commercial relations between the two countries, especially Saudi investment in the United States and the sale of American F-35s. Yesterday’s meeting further consolidated relations between Washington and Riyadh, opening a new diplomatic phase. Speaking about Gaza, Bin Salman said that the aid would “definitely contribute” to covering reconstruction costs, but without providing exact figures. Trump added that this was a large number.
THE MIDDLE EAST
Regarding the condition of the Palestinian people, the president emphasized that “they are fine… We are working with many people to make everyone happy, including Israelis, Palestinians and everyone.” However, there is a problem with this issue: although there is interest on the part of Riyadh to normalize relations with Israel and sign the Abraham Accords, there is still a long way to go. “We want to be part of the Abraham Accords, but we also want to make sure that there is a clear path to a two-state solution,” said Bin Salman, during an Oval Office meeting with Trump, referring to the agreement signed in 2020 that saw several Arab countries establish diplomatic ties with Israel. Both Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Trump confirmed they had discussed normalization efforts extensively before the visit. “I don’t want to talk about formal commitments, but we had very positive discussions on the Abraham Accords,” Trump added, while Bin Salman described talks on a two-state solution as “constructive.” However, in this regard, the Saudi government’s position remains unchanged. Without a credible pathway towards establishing a Palestinian state, the crown prince said, normalizing relations with Israel would be difficult. Regarding investments in the United States, the prince announced that the amount would increase from the current 600 billion dollars to around 1,000 billion dollars. Donald Trump himself raised the issue, joking: “He’s my friend, maybe he’ll get 1,000 billion, but I have to work on it.” Bin Salman emphasized that the final figures would be “close” to that goal. In his first mandate, Trump had boasted of $450 billion in Saudi investment, but according to the Arab Gulf States Institute between 2017 and 2020, American exports to Riyadh stalled at around $92 billion, just a fifth of the announced amount.
JET
Then there’s the question of the F-35. On Monday, Trump confirmed the decision to sell 48 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia, making it the first country in the Middle East after Israel to have American jets: now Congress will have to approve the decision and possibly block it, given the strong concerns of some lawmakers. In addition, Israel only provided one condition for the sale of the aircraft: normalization of relations, which may not be easy to do. Joe Biden has tried to reach a defense agreement with Saudi Arabia: in 2022 he flew to Riyadh to ask the crown prince for help in lowering oil prices. However, he was unable to reach a military agreement. Which currently remains one of the priorities of Arab countries. Currently about 20 countries have purchased or ordered the latest generation of US-made jets, each of which costs between 800 and 100 million dollars. The background is the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Bin Salman, who was the target of suspicion, defined his death as “painful” and a “huge mistake”, while Trump stated that “Bin Salman knew nothing and Saudi Arabia did all the necessary investigations”.
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