Trump to travel to Saudi Arabia in May: Report
US President Donald Trump plans to visit Saudi Arabia in mid-May, Axios reported on Monday.
The trip would mark Trump's first foreign visit during his second presidential mandate.
Saudi Arabia's 39-year-old crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, is at the intersection of foreign policy issues that Trump wants to turn a page on, stretching from Ukraine to Gaza and Iran.
If Trump travels to Saudi Arabia in May, that will roughly coincide with his reported self-imposed deadline on Iran to start nuclear talks. Riyadh supported the first Trump administration's decision to unilaterally withdraw from the 2015 nuclear deal but has since patched up ties with Tehran.
Saudi Arabia has also been hosting direct talks between the US and Russia on ending the war in Ukraine. Trump's decision to enhance relations with Russia jolted the Washington establishment, but progress toward a ceasefire has been slow.
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Trump said over the weekend that he was "very angry" with President Vladimir Putin and threatened secondary oil sanctions on buyers of Russian energy.
Trump also says he wants to expand the 2020 Abraham Accords, which he struck during his first term in office. The Biden administration was negotiating with Saudi Arabia to normalise ties with Israel, but those talks were derailed by the Hamas-led 7 October attack on southern Israel.
Trump looks towards Abraham Accords
The crown prince has publicly said that Israel has committed "genocide" in Gaza.
American diplomats and analysts are trying to decipher how much of the crown prince’s rhetoric is for domestic consumption or a bargaining position.
Saudi Arabia now says that a Palestinian state must be created as a pre-condition to normalising with Israel. American and Arab officials say Trump hopes to secure a Nobel Peace Prize for brokering a deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia.
The kingdom hosted a summit with Egypt, Jordan and other Gulf states on the reconstruction of Gaza in February as an alternative to Trump’s plans to forcibly expel Palestinians from Gaza. The Gulf, however, is divided on the $53bn reconstruction plan spearheaded by Egypt, with the UAE lobbying the US against the plan.
Trump said earlier in March that he planned to travel to Saudi Arabia for his first foreign trip after the kingdom agreed to invest $1 trillion in the US.
Saudi Arabia's $1 trillion
"I made a deal with Saudi Arabia.... I said I'll go if you pay $1 trillion to American companies, meaning the purchase over a four-year period of $1 trillion, and they've agreed to do that," Trump told reporters.
Saudia Arabia was also the first country Trump visited during his first term in office in May 2017, and the visit was said to have strengthened relations between the two countries.
Saudi Arabia has not confirmed Trump's claim about $1 trillion in investments.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman enjoyed close ties to Trump’s inner circle during his first term in office. He forged a friendship with Trump’s advisor and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and later invested in his private equity group, Affinity Partners.
Despite this history, until recently there have been sore points in the relationship between the second Trump administration and Saudi Arabia.
The kingdom ignored Trump’s call to pump more oil at the beginning of the year. Trump said cheaper oil prices were needed to end the war in Ukraine. Saudi Arabia and other oil producers belonging to an alliance dubbed Opec+ are set to increase production starting in April.
Until recently, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states had prevented the US from launching strikes on Yemen's Houthis from their air bases. The US launched deadly strikes on Yemen earlier this month. A US defence official told MEE recently that the US had obtained permission from Gulf states.
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