Washington: Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman opened a marathon tour of the United States on Tuesday by soaking in praise from President Donald Trump, who championed close economic ties and increased military sales to the Saudis as he hosted the Crown Prince in the Oval Office.
Trump and the crown prince looked past the two nations’ differing views about waging war in Yemen as they came together for an Oval Office meeting and working lunch. Instead, they focused on areas of agreement: Saudi investments in the US, American arm sales to the kingdom and sharp criticism of their mutual foe: Iran.
Trump sounded an ominous note as he looked ahead to a decision in May about whether to stay in the Iran nuclear deal, loathed by both Trump and the Saudis.
“We’ll see what happens,” Trump said. “Iran has not been treating that part of the world, or the world itself, appropriately. A lot of bad things are happening in Iran.”
Prince Mohammad was optimistic about prospects for closer economic ties amid “new waves of opportunities in different areas.”
“The opportunities are very huge,” he said in English.
While in Washington, the crown prince will hold separate meetings with a long roster of influential U.S. officials, including the secretaries of defence, treasury and commerce, the CIA chief and congressional leaders from both parties. Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner and White House envoy Jared Greenblatt, who are drafting Trump’s long-awaited Mideast peace plan, will also join the crown prince for dinner Tuesday, the Saudi Embassy in Washington said.
The visit comes as the United States and much of the West are still trying to figure out Prince Mohammad, better known by his initials MBS, whose sweeping programme of social changes at home and increased Saudi assertiveness abroad has upended decades of traditional rule in Saudi Arabia. The 32-year-old crown prince also has big economic plans, and over three weeks in the US he will meet businessmen in New York, tech mavens from Google and Apple Inc. in San Francisco, and entertainment bigwigs in Los Angeles. Other stops include Boston and Houston.
Prince Mohammad said recently he was restoring the more tolerant, egalitarian society that existed before Saudi Arabia’s ultraconservatives were empowered in 1979. He told CBS News: “We were victims, especially my generation that suffered from this a great deal.”
The Saudis are working aggressively to change perceptions. They’ve cast themselves as essential partners against Islamist extremist groups and, especially since Trump’s maiden overseas voyage last year, touted their lavish purchases of high-tech goods from job-creating American companies. In Yemen, the kingdom says it is improving military targeting, opening up ports and pledging $1.5 billion in new aid.
Stock exchanges in New York and elsewhere are vying for the international listing of Aramco, the Saudi oil behemoth expected to go public soon.
