Saudi Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman with US President Donald Trump. Reuters
Michael Hirsh, Lara Seligman, Foreign Policy: All Alone Now, the Saudis Will Entice Trump With Big Contracts
The president doesn’t seem to realize that the embattled crown prince needs American weapons and know-how more than the U.S. needs Saudi investments.
After weeks of siding with the Saudi royals—and sending his secretary of state to grip-and-grin with the king—U.S. President Donald Trump finally bowed to public outrage on Thursday and pulled Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin from Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s dwindling “Davos in the Desert” conference next week. Later, Trump acknowledged for the first time that “it certainly looks” like Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi is dead. “It’s very sad,” the president said.
They were the first indications that Trump may be siding with Turkish officials’ conclusion that Mohammed bin Salman and his security team are responsible for killing Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist, on Oct. 2, an act that has left the Saudi regime almost totally isolated on the world stage.
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WNU Editor: The Saudis are currently politically isolated with the West. And while countries like Russia and China are more than happy to step in, especially on arm sales, that is a road that the Saudi Kingdom has no interest to pursue right now. The big question that remains is what happens to MBS .... Intel: Can the Khashoggi case really spell the end of MBS? (Al-Monitor).
