TRUMP SAYS HE HOPES SAUDI ARABIA NORMALISES TIES WITH ISRAEL

Tue 13 May 2025:

US President Donald Trump has arrived in Saudi Arabia, in what will be the first stop of a three-day tour that will also see him visit Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, also known as MBS, has greeted Trump upon arrival in Riyadh.

The White House says Trump is making a “historic return to the Middle East”, the first official state visit of his second presidency, where he will concentrate on “strengthening ties“.

Trump is expected to focus on securing major financial investments for the United States and making diplomatic inroads on regional issues, including a Gaza ceasefire and Saudi Arabia-Israel normalisation talks.

In Saudi Arabia, his first stop, Trump is hoping to secure a $1 trillion investment in US industry from Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, upping the crown prince’s earlier investment pledge of $600bn.

The US president says he hopes that Saudi Arabia will join the so-called Abraham Accords, the series of normalsation that his administration negotiated between Israel and some Arab countries during his first term.

“It’s my fervent hope, wish and even my dream that Saudi Arabia … will soon be joining the Abraham Accords,” Trump tells the forum.

“I think it will be a tremendous tribute to your country and it will be something that is really going to be very important for the future of the Middle East.”

Palestinian officials have slammed the normalisation as “another treacherous stab to the Palestinian cause”.

__________________________________________________________________________

https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaAtNxX8fewmiFmN7N22

__________________________________________________________________________

‘Gulf governments stronger friends to Trump than Israel’s’

A week ago, Trump announced the US abandoning its daily bombing campaign of Yemen, saying the Houthis had agreed to stop attacking ships on the Red Sea

The Trump administration did not notify Israel, which the Houthis continue to target, of the agreement before Trump’s public announcement – the latest example of Trump leaving Israeli officials in the dark about his administration’s negotiations with common adversaries.

“Israel will defend itself by itself,” Netanyahu said last week following Trump’s announcement. “If others join us – our American friends – all the better.”

William Wechsler, senior director of the Rafik Hariri Center and Middle East Programs at the Atlantic Council, said Trump’s decision to skip Israel on his first Middle East visit is remarkable.

“The main message coming out of this, at least as the itinerary stands today, is that the governments of the Gulf … are in fact stronger friends to President Trump than the current government of Israel at this moment,” Wechsler told AP.

Gaza an issue to watch as Trump’s Gulf tour continues

James Bays, Al Jazeera’s diplomatic editor

I think Trump will be pretty pleased by what has been achieved so far. The deals signed would all had been agreed in advance. Now he may very well be catching up on information from other players.

In addition to Syria, Gaza is the other issue to watch.

There’s some talk that the US has new plans for Gaza, and we certainly know that the Gulf states have their own plans there. Will we see any movement on that? And if so, will it be something that worries Netanyahu?

I think it is interesting who Trump is listening to here. In his cabinet, he’s got people who have traditionally been very strong supporters of Israel, notably his Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

But I think on this issue, he’s listening to his instincts and to Steve Witkoff, his real estate friend, who is leading the negotiations. We seem to get the view that Witkoff is getting unhappy with the continuance of the war in Gaza.

Will that feed into President Trump, and will we see any important developments in the coming hours?

Trump expresses openness to improving relations with Iran, Syria

Trump hinted that he would not be restricted by previous periods of hostility when seeking new partnerships in the region, even as he called Iran an agent of “chaos” that has brought “unthinkable suffering in Syria, Lebanon, Gaza, Iraq, Yemen, and beyond”.

“But I am here today not merely to condemn the past choices of Iran’s leaders, but to offer them a new and a better path toward a much more hopeful future,” he said, adding that he was “willing to end past conflicts and forge new partnerships for a better and more stable world”.

After signaling in recent days that the US may lift sanctions on Syria originally meant to isolate the government of deposed President Bashar al-Assad, Trump noted that the world “must hope” that the country’s new authorities “will succeed in stabilising the country and keeping peace”.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

__________________________________________________________________________

FOLLOW INDEPENDENT PRESS:

WhatsApp CHANNEL
https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaAtNxX8fewmiFmN7N22