Trump praises U.S. military sales to Saudi as he welcomes crown prince

[webfact]

Trump praises U.S. military sales to Saudi as he welcomes crown prince

By Steve Holland and Yara Bayoumy

 

U.S. President Donald Trump shakes hands with Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, U.S. March 20, 2018. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump gave a warm welcome to Saudi Arabia's powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Tuesday and credited U.S. defence sales to the Saudis with boosting American jobs, even as Riyadh's involvement in Yemen's civil war faced criticism.

 

In the Oval Office, Trump and the crown prince praised the strength of U.S.-Saudi ties, which had grown strained under the Obama administration in part over differing views toward Riyadh's regional rival, Iran.

 

Not so with Trump, who has taken a hardline view against Iran similar to that of the Saudi crown prince who has compared Iran's supreme leader to Adolf Hitler.

 

The talks were part of the first visit by the prince to the United States since he became the heir apparent last year to King Salman.

 

Trump's red-carpet treatment highlighted his administration's strong backing of the crown prince, who carried out an anti-corruption purge that consolidated his power and whose aggressive foreign policy has caused unease among some Western allies.

 

At the same time, the kingdom has seen a cautious new climate of social freedoms with the rise of the 32-year-old crown prince after decades of elderly rulers.

 

Trump and Prince Mohammed discussed an agreement last year for $200 billion worth of Saudi investments with the United States, including large purchases of U.S. military equipment. Trump said the military sales contributed to the creation of 40,000 American jobs.

 

Trump held up charts to show the depth of Saudi purchases of U.S. military hardware, ranging from ships to missile defence to planes and fighting vehicles.

 

"Saudi Arabia is a very wealthy nation, and they're going to give the United States some of that wealth, hopefully, in the form of jobs, in the form of the purchase of the finest military equipment anywhere in the world," he told reporters.

 

The crown prince, who is also the defence minister, is on a public relations blitz while travelling in the United States, with stops in New York, Boston, Seattle, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Houston to cultivate investments.

 

As they talked, U.S. senators debated a resolution seeking an end to U.S. support for Saudi Arabia's campaign in Yemen's civil war, in which about 10,000 people have been killed. Some members of Congress have been critical of the Saudi involvement, particularly over the humanitarian situation and civilian casualties. The Senate rejected the resolution.

 

A Saudi-led coalition, with logistical and intelligence support from Washington, is fighting to counter the influence of Iran, an ally of the Houthi militia, which denies any help from Tehran and says it is fighting a revolution against corrupt politicians and Gulf powers in thrall to the West.

 

A senior Trump administration official said the two leaders talked about the humanitarian situation in Yemen and that civilian casualties "did not come up in a major way," given that Washington had been working with the Saudis to minimize them.

 

They also discussed nuclear cooperation. Riyadh has been stepping up plans to develop a civilian nuclear energy capability as part of a plan to reduce its dependence on oil.

 

Republican Senator Bob Corker, chairman of the chamber's Foreign Relations Committee, said senators questioned the crown prince closely about Yemen during a meeting with him on Tuesday.

 

The Saudi embassy said the prince discussed with members "countering the threat posed by Iran and the Iran-backed Houthi militias" as well as Saudi "efforts to address and alleviate the humanitarian situation in Yemen."

 

PRINCE'S RAPID RISE

 

Prince Mohammed capped his rapid rise to power last June by replacing his elder cousin Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, who had close relationships with U.S. intelligence and defence circles, as crown prince. He is likely to rule for many decades if he succeeds his father.

 

Trump praised the king's move to elevate Mohammed and called U.S.-Saudi ties strong as ever.

 

"I thought your father made a very wise decision. And I miss your father - a special man," he said. King Salman is to visit the United States later this year.

 

Although the prince has won Western plaudits for seeking to ease Saudi Arabia’s reliance on oil, tackle chronic corruption and reform the conservative Sunni Muslim kingdom, the severity and secrecy of his anti-corruption crackdown last November unnerved some in the West.

 

The crown prince, in a rare foray into speaking English, said on Tuesday the Saudi pledge for $200 billion in investments would end up at $400 billion when fully implemented. He said a 10-year window for implementing the deal was under way.

 

A key focus of his visit will be any information on a potentially lucrative listing of up to 5 percent of Saudi oil firm Aramco. The New York Stock Exchange is among the possible venues for the listing.

 

Also high on the agenda in the White House talks was confronting Iran, a country Trump has repeatedly criticized for its expansionist policies in the Middle East.

 

Saudi Arabia on Monday called the Iran nuclear deal a "flawed agreement," and Trump has made clear he plans to exit the agreement unless changes are made to it.

 

"But Iran has not been treating that part of the world or the world itself appropriately," he said. "The deal is coming up in one month and we’ll see what happens."

 

The prince was also due to have dinner with Jared Kushner, Trump's senior adviser and son-in-law, along with Jason Greenblatt, the two point men in the Trump administration overseeing Middle East peace efforts.

 

Crown Prince Mohammed and Kushner have forged a close relationship, which has at times come under criticism in Washington for circumventing normal diplomatic channels.

 

(Additional reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Alistair Bell and Peter Cooney)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-03-21

[mtls2005]

Well, at least the commission will help Jared pay down some of his debt.

[zaphod reborn]

1 hour ago, mtls2005 said:

Well, at least the commission will help Jared pay down some of his debt.

Arms shipments as a reward for arresting and imprisoning Prince Al-Waleed, CitiBank's largest shareholder, so that CitiBank would extend a $325 million loan to Jared to bail him out of his 666 5th Avenue blunder.  Bin Salmaan was duly rewarded by Trump for acting like a Russian mobster in extorting Al-Waleed.

 

Quote

Crown Prince Mohammed and Kushner have forged a close relationship, which has at times come under criticism in Washington for circumventing normal diplomatic channels.

 

Edited March 21, 2018 by zaphod reborn

[Guest Jerry787]

he praise the saudis, using us arms against innocents in yemen, saudi and kurdistan...

this trump is at the same level of pinot che or mao tze tung or hitler!

[Morch]

2 hours ago, zaphod reborn said:

Arms shipments as a reward for arresting and imprisoning Prince Al-Waleed, CitiBank's largest shareholder, so that CitiBank would extend a $325 million loan to Jared to bail him out of his 666 5th Avenue blunder.  Bin Salmaan was duly rewarded by Trump for acting like a Russian mobster in extorting Al-Waleed.

 

 

 

Many of the related arms deals (if not most) originated and were already in the works during Obama's term. We've been through that on previous topics.

[mtls2005]

5 minutes ago, Morch said:

Many of the related arms deals (if not most) originated and were already in the works during Obama's term. We've been through that on previous topics.

 

Not sure this is even close to being factually correct, but these "arms deals" are difficult to track, and typically just consist of letters of interest, or letters of intent, with no real contracts to back them up.

 

Yes, believe the Obama administration was involved in a $115B "intent" circa 2016, which was subsequently slow-rolled/stalled after SA's Yemen incursion. Of course, Congress also has to approve these arms deals. Ultimately not much actual kit, if any, was ever shipped on this "intent".

 

Subsequently, Trump/Jared did wring out $350B in letters of interest on their SA trip  (The Glowing Orb Tour). As of yesterday, this is being represented as a $200B "intent". Jared has been working hard to close some sort of deal, and has been pressuring contractors to offer more favorable pricing. I'm not sure any contracts have been signed, or orders issued, or anything approved by Congress yet?

 

 

Obviously, there's been some personnel turnover on the SA side recently.

[Srikcir]

7 hours ago, webfact said:

U.S. President Donald Trump gave a warm welcome to Saudi Arabia's powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman

And lost the Game of Handshakes to the Prince.

Trump gets a weak grip bottom-palm up.

Kudos to the Prince.

 

[Morch]

4 minutes ago, mtls2005 said:

 

Not sure this is even close to being factually correct, but these "arms deals" are difficult to track, and typically just consist of letters of interest, or letters of intent, with no real contracts to back them up.

 

Yes, believe the Obama administration was involved in a $115B "intent" circa 2016, which was subsequently slow-rolled/stalled after SA's Yemen incursion. Of course, Congress also has to approve these arms deals. Ultimately not much actual kit, if any, was ever shipped on this "intent".

 

Subsequently, Trump/Jared did wring out $350B in letters of interest on their SA trip  (The Glowing Orb Tour). As of yesterday, this is being represented as a $200B "intent". Jared has been working hard to close some sort of deal, and has been pressuring contractors to offer more favorable pricing. I'm not sure any contracts have been signed, or orders issued, or anything approved by Congress yet?

 

 

Obviously, there's been some personnel turnover on the SA side recently.

 

Arms deals of this scope, or even lesser ones, take months if not years to iron out and finalize. If you imagine that the Trump administration was able to sort all them details in the time frame available since inauguration - that's quite a departure from your usual take on things.

 

Arms deals between countries, and involving large firms/main battle systems are not "difficult to track", quite the opposite.

 

As for the nothing was shipped deflection - may want to dig a bit and check how much of the items supposedly included in the "deal" Trump signed were actually delivered. It's a slow process, takes years to come through. Some of this stuff will arrive in SA (if, that is...) during the next administration's term.

 

From all of the above, not sure what's the party line, then? That Trump sold arms to the evil Saudis? Or that he just brags about a "deal" that's not 100% on yet? That Obama's administration wasn't involved in such arms sales?

 

 

[Morch]

@zaphod reborn

 

The only fake here is your misrepresentation of what I've posted. There wasn't anything said about Trump not selling arms to Saudi Arabia, or Kushner not traveling there.

 

Apparently, you don't even bother reading the links you put up:

 

Quote

In 2016, the Obama administration proposed a series of arms deals worth $115 billion, including warships, helicopters, and maintenance

 

Depending on which bit quoted, it's quite easy to spin this along partisan lines. The fact stands that US arms sales to Saudi Arabia are nothing new.

 

[buick]

Since 2010, the Obama administration authorized a record $60bn in US military sales to Saudi Arabia. Since then, the administration concluded deals for nearly $48bn in weapons sales – triple the $16bn in sales under the George W Bush administration.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/apr/22/us-saudi-arabia-weapons-arms-deals-foreign-policy

[zaphod reborn]

1 hour ago, Morch said:

@zaphod reborn

 

The only fake here is your misrepresentation of what I've posted. There wasn't anything said about Trump not selling arms to Saudi Arabia, or Kushner not traveling there.

 

Apparently, you don't even bother reading the links you put up:

 

 

Depending on which bit quoted, it's quite easy to spin this along partisan lines. The fact stands that US arms sales to Saudi Arabia are nothing new.

 

 

In fact, it appears credit should be given both to Kushner and Obama for getting the 2017 arms deal to the Saudis inked.

Quote

The Obama administration put a hold on precision-guided munitions it had agreed to sell the Saudis out of fear that they would be used to bomb civilians in Yemen. The Trump administration has freed up those weapons, which are part of the $110 billion package.  https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/18/world/middleeast/jared-kushner-saudi-arabia-arms-deal-lockheed.html

 

And that's the point.  Kushner reversed an Obama decision not to sell certain high-tech weapons to the Saudis.  The Saudi government arrested and imprisoned CitiBank's largest shareholder.  Prince Al-Waleed is freed after he puts pressure on CitiBank to make a $325 million loan to Kushner, a loan which did not make good business sense, because the secured property, 666 5th Avenue, is upside-down in its lease rent revenues, as they are less than the interest payments on the loans.

 

Arms sales to the Saudis are matter-of-course for the US.  Kushner got a loan by reversing an Obama decision.  And that is just like Trump, who was handed an election victory in exchange for not enforcing sanctions against Russia and its oligarchs which had been ordered by Obama.

[Ron19]

Troll post removed

[Morch]

 

@zaphod reborn

 

Them munitions withheld by the Obama administration represented a small part of overall US military support and arms provisions during Obama's terms in office. It is not as if all deals were canceled, all assistance and support cut off.

 

If Kushner did, in fact, get such a loan based on his involvement, it was not because of "reversing" the Obama administration's partial ban - but for promoting the lion's share of the deal. Your are conflating between two elements of this story.

[Opl]

"Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman reportedly bragged about having White House senior counsel Jared Kushner “in his pocket” and may have used highly sensitive intelligence from the President’s Daily Briefing in his violent crackdown on dissent in Saudi Arabia"

https://www.rawstory.com/2018/03/saudi-crown-prince-said-kushner-pocket-allegedly-receiving-sensitive-information-presidents-daily-briefing/

[lannarebirth]

1 hour ago, Opl said:

"Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman reportedly bragged about having White House senior counsel Jared Kushner “in his pocket” and may have used highly sensitive intelligence from the President’s Daily Briefing in his violent crackdown on dissent in Saudi Arabia"

https://www.rawstory.com/2018/03/saudi-crown-prince-said-kushner-pocket-allegedly-receiving-sensitive-information-presidents-daily-briefing/

 

Am I the only one that laments the passage of journalism that didn't contain headlines like "May have", "This is what what happened but here's why that doesn't matter"."Here's what you should think about that". and others of that nature. Just tell me what happened and I'll figure out for myself what I think about it.

[mikebike]

On 2018-03-21 at 1:25 PM, Morch said:

 

Many of the related arms deals (if not most) originated and were already in the works during Obama's term. We've been through that on previous topics.

Uhm... so that means they need to be carried through with? No one at home in the current admin to review and make their OWN decision? Just, "let's rubber stamp this shizzle, we can blame the previous administration if anyone questions us..."? That's your standard of excellence?

[mikebike]

2 hours ago, lannarebirth said:

 

Am I the only one that laments the passage of journalism that didn't contain headlines like "May have", "This is what what happened but here's why that doesn't matter"."Here's what you should think about that". and others of that nature. Just tell me what happened and I'll figure out for myself what I think about it.

No you are not, but those of you who make this lament may be the only ones not to realize the use of "may have" means "we think this is the case ATM and will continue investigating and give you more details as they emerge".

 

Obfuscated facts do not pop out like a birthed baby.

[Morch]

1 hour ago, mikebike said:

Uhm... so that means they need to be carried through with? No one at home in the current admin to review and make their OWN decision? Just, "let's rubber stamp this shizzle, we can blame the previous administration if anyone questions us..."? That's your standard of excellence?

 

As to such deals being "carried through", this is indeed pretty much the norm. Same as with standing commitments by government. Unless, that is, the platform on which a winning candidate runs specifically deals with related issues. You can't conduct such deals, spanning years and administrations, if things have to be reviewed with each political change. That's why cancelling or withholding previously agreed upon arms transfers tends to make headlines, and is considered a "big deal".

 

As for the Trump administration having anything to do with "standard of excellence", can't recall ever airing something even remotely along these lines. Making it about "my" supposed "standard of excellence" is meaningless and irrelevant.