• US president rolls out red carpet for visiting Saudi royal; claims to have clinched defence deal
• Riyadh wants to join Abraham Accords, seeks clarity on ‘two-state solution’, says MBS
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump rolled out the red carpet for Mohammad Bin Salman on Tuesday, welcoming the Saudi crown prince to a pomp-filled, deal-making visit to the White House.
Making his first White House visit in more than seven years, the crown prince was greeted with a lavish display, presided over by Trump on the South Lawn, complete with a military honor guard, a cannon salute and a flyover by US warplanes.
The meeting underscores a key relationship – between the world’s biggest economy and the top oil exporter – that Trump has made a high priority in his second term as the international uproar around the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi insider-turned-critic, has gradually faded.
Addressing the issue on Tuesday, MBS said the 2018 killing of the Washington Post columnist was a “huge mistake”.
Talking about the killing, perpetrated by Saudi agents, the prince said: “it’s painful and it’s a huge mistake, and we are doing our best that this doesn’t happen again.”
However, his host defended MBS, calling Khashoggi “extremely controversial”.
Trump chided the reporter who asked about the scandal, ordering him to “leave it at that”. “You don’t have to embarrass our guest by asking a question like that,” he said, adding: “A lot of people didn’t like that gentleman that you’re talking about. Whether you like him or didn’t like him, things happened, but he (the prince) knew nothing about it”.
Khashoggi was killed in 2018 inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkiye. The killing and dismemberment of the journalist, who’d been critical of the Saudi rulers, briefly caused a diplomatic crisis and prompted criticism from Trump, who was then serving his first term. Saudi officials later said his killing was a rogue operation, rather than something ordered by the leadership.
Defence deal
Trump began his remarks in the Oval Office by lauding MBS as a “very good friend” and saying he’d done an “incredible” job on “human rights, and everything else”.
He said the US had reached a defence deal with Riyadh, without providing details, adding that he was working to approve the sale of advanced American AI chips to Saudi Arabia. The US president also said he had spoken to MBS about the Abraham Accords, adding that he believes he got a positive response.
MBS said his country wanted to normalise relations with Israel through Trump’s Abraham Accords, but first needed a “clear path” to Palestinian statehood.
“We want to be part of the Abraham Accords. But we want also to be sure that we secure a clear path of two-state solution,” the prince said in the Oval Office alongside Trump. “We’re going to work on that, to be sure that we can prepare the right situation as soon as possible,” he added.
Trump also denied that he had any conflicts of interest in negotiating with MBS, after his sons signed a major real estate deal in that country. During a day of White House diplomacy, MBS will have lunch in the Cabinet Room and attend a formal black-tie dinner in the evening, giving it many of the trappings of a state visit.
