Once Someone Biden Would Not Shake Hands with, Saudi Price Got His Own Terms W/Trump
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New York Times
Seven years after Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia was effectively banished from Washington after the murder of a prominent Saudi dissident, he returned on Tuesday to a welcome meant to signal that he sat at the center of President Trump’s effort to build a new Middle East.
It was, perhaps, the most astounding geopolitical restoration of modern times. The de facto leader of the largest and richest of the Arab states, who President Joseph R. Biden Jr. said should be treated as a “pariah” six years ago, reset relations on his own terms.
The crown prince got a commitment from Mr. Trump for F-35 stealth fighters, over Israel’s objections. At the same time, he managed to push off, most likely for years, any discussion of Saudi Arabia joining the Abraham Accords and recognizing the Jewish state.
“We want to be part of the Abraham Accords, but we also want to be sure that we secure a clear path of a two-state solution,” Prince Mohammed said in the Oval Office, uttering the phrase he knew that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would reject outright, as would much of the rest of Israel’s political establishment.
“We want peace with the Israelis,” he insisted. “We want peace with the Palestinians, we want them to coexist peacefully.”
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| Warplanes flew over the White House during the arrival ceremony on Tuesday, including F-35s which the administration said it would sell to the Saudis.Credit...Kenny Holston/The New York Times |
Then, with the traditional business of the past 75 years of Middle East diplomacy pushed aside, Prince Mohammed uttered the words he knew his host wanted to hear, promising upward of a trillion dollars in purchases and investments in the United States — more than the size of his country’s sovereign wealth fund. (The crown prince carefully avoided saying over what period of time the investments would be made, recognizing that the president sought a big dollar figure, whether it was realistic or not.)
In return, it appears Prince Mohammed has a commitment for access to America’s most advanced computer chips, critical to building the vast data servers central to his plan to turn his country into an artificial intelligence powerhouse, with the electricity-hungry processors powered by a mix of Saudi oil and renewable energy.
And without ever mentioning China, he made it clear in the run-up to the visit that Beijing was willing to step in to supply any technology that Washington hesitated to provide.
“We are seeing the ultimate ‘comeback visit,’” said Meghan O’Sullivan, an energy expert and former Bush administration official who now directs the Belfer Center at Harvard.
“M.B.S. has made Saudi Arabia more relevant to U.S. interests than ever before,” she said, referring to Prince Mohammed by his initials. She said he was “aligning an aggressive tech strategy and an oil policy which is helping keep prices low.”
“At the same time,” she added, “he has skillfully played the China card, suggesting that what Washington holds back will effectively be supplied by Beijing, undermining Washington arguments for restraint.”
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