Saudis praise Trump for 'turning point' after meeting with Prince

PanARMENIAN.Net - Saudi Arabia claimed “a historic turning point” in relations with the U.S. after President Donald Trump welcomed Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to the White House, Bloomberg reports.

“Relations had undergone a period of difference of opinion,” a senior adviser to the crown prince said in a statement after Tuesday, March 14’s meeting. “However, today’s meeting has put things on the right track, and marked a significant shift in relations, across all political, military, security and economic fields.”

The effusive praise for Trump’s “great understanding” of U.S.-Saudi relations reflects the eagerness among Sunni-led Arab nations for a renewed alliance after deep strains with former President Barack Obama, who crafted the 2015 nuclear deal with their Shiite rival Iran.

The new administration sees Saudi Arabia “as a crucial part of the Middle East and an important country to have a positive relationship with -- even if there are irritants in the relationship,” said Simon Henderson, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and director of the institute’s Gulf and Energy Policy Program. “This is at odds with the Obama administration, so they want to make that clear distinction.”

Salman, who is also the son of King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and his country’s defense minister, had lunch with Trump and aides at the White House on Tuesday. That’s a higher-profile meeting than an initially planned photo opportunity, according to Henderson.

The 31-year-old deputy crown prince’s visit follows a trip he made to Washington in June after unveiling his Saudi Vision 2030, with plans to modernize the world’s biggest oil exporter into an economy no longer reliant on crude. Saudi Arabian Oil Co., known as Aramco, is also planning potentially the world’s biggest initial public offering, with as much as $100 billion in shares expected to be sold.

Providing a talking point likely to be welcomed by Trump’s administration, the Saudi statement said Saudi Arabia doesn’t believe that the U.S. president’s restriction on travel from six mostly Sunni nations “is targeting Muslim countries or the religion of Islam” and is aimed at ”preventing terrorists” from entering the U.S.

The Saudis also said Trump and the deputy crown prince “share the same views on the gravity of the Iranian expansionist moves in the region.”