Saudi Prince to Meet With Trump in US After Weeks of Tense Talks

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Another challenge has been how to put together something substantial to announce on atomic energy. Any bilateral agreement that allows Saudi Arabia to build nuclear reactors may require Congressional approval. Saudi Arabia has long sought nuclear capabilities and US assistance, despite security concerns in Washington about the kingdom’s desire to enrich its own uranium.

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Then there’s Israel and the war in Gaza, currently in a state of uncertain ceasefire.  

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Under Biden, the US was in advanced talks with the Saudis over a binding defense treaty and civil-nuclear cooperation agreement in exchange for Riyadh agreeing to normalize relations with Israel. That process came to a halt when Hamas militants attacked Israel in October 2023, triggering a conflict that’s killed tens of thousands of people in Gaza and rallied support for the Palestinian cause across the world.

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Saudi Arabia has said publicly that Palestinian statehood is a precondition for agreeing to formal ties with Israel, a red line that clashes with Trump’s repeated comments that a deal is a key objective of his administration.

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“Presumably the White House wants a forward-leaning posture of Saudi Arabia normalizing with Israel,” during the crown prince’s visit, said Barbara Leaf, an assistant secretary of state during Biden’s administration and now senior international policy advisor at Washington-based law firm Arnold and Porter.

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That’s “something quite difficult to construct right now given the fragility of the ceasefire and given that so much of the work lies ahead,” she said, referring to the Gaza peace plan announced by Trump last month and which Saudi Arabia was involved in preparing. 

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Palestinian Question

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While expanding the 2020 Abraham Accords to include Saudi Arabia is a top priority for Trump, it’s not a deal breaker during the crown prince’s visit, according to two US officials. Trump has tried to separate the Israel-Palestine issue from other priorities in the US relationship with Saudi Arabia, one of them said. He still wants Saudi Arabia and Israel to normalize ties by the end of his term, the second official added. 

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For Saudi Arabia, the position on Palestinian statehood remains the same as ever and no one is expecting a quick solution, an official familiar with the kingdom’s thinking said. 

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MBS and Trump are expected to discuss the further implementation of the Gaza peace plan, given Riyadh views the 20-point document as a roadmap for any normalization with Israel.

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Saudi Arabia wants to see “a clear time-bound Israeli withdrawal” from Gaza, plus steps that empower a Palestinian security force and government and lead to the unification of Gaza and the West Bank under the Palestinian Authority, Manal Radwan, a senior Saudi foreign ministry official, said at a security conference in Bahrain earlier this month.

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“These steps are not the end goal, they are the pathway to the realization of the Palestinian state and implementation of the two-state solution,” she said.

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While MBS has sought to deepen ties with China, his priority remains the US and to keep Trump onside. His decision to head to Washington — a rare venture outside the Middle East — means he will likely skip the G-20 summit in Johannesburg later this month, as Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are doing.

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Indeed, MBS has a successful track record with the president, who said in Riyadh that of all the US partners around the world, there were “none stronger” than the crown prince. MBS will be showered with all the pomp normally reserved for a head of state, the people familiar with the planning said.

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“I like him a lot. I like him too much,” Trump said in a speech in the Saudi capital in May. “That’s why we give so much.”

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—With assistance from Mackenzie Hawkins and Paul Wallace.

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