US president Donald Trump begins the first working trip of this term in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday.
Mr Trump will hold bilateral talks with the country’s de facto ruler, crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, and on Wednesday will attend a summit of leaders of the Gulf Co-operation Council members: Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, Kuwait and Oman.
He will then travel to Qatar for a meeting with Emir Sheikh Tamim al-Thani. Mr Trump is scheduled to travel to the UAE on Thursday for talks with president Mohammed Bin Zayed.
The three Arab rulers are focused on regional stabilisation, which would allow them to reduce dependence on oil revenues. Mr Trump is seeking trillions of dollars in arms sales and investment in the US.
Donald Trump leans left in bid to revive flagging poll numbers
Israelis have no appetite for extending the Gaza war, but the suffering of Palestinians barely registers
A ‘very nice gesture’: Trump accepts gift of new Air Force One plane from Qatar
Gérard Depardieu verdict: France’s ‘meat grinder’ cultural sector grapples with #MeToo
Ahead of Mr Trump’s arrival, the US state department approved a potential $3.5 billion (€3.1 billion) sale of medium-range missiles and associated equipment to Saudi Arabia.
The UAE wants to prioritise co-operation around artificial intelligence.
The Qatari ruler has offered Mr Trump a new Boeing 747 aircraft which, once refitted, would replace Air Force One. Once Mr Trump leaves the White House, the plane would be donated to his presidential library, according to Reuters.
Democrats and critics of the Trump administration have argued that such a valuable gift is unconstitutional and illegal without Congressional approval. Senate Democratic Party leader Chuck Schumer wrote on X: “It’s not just bribery; it’s premium foreign influence with extra legroom.”
[ Donald Trump to accept Qatar’s gift of a new Air Force One on Middle East tour ]
White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told Fox News: “Any donation to this government is always done in full compliance with the law, and we commit ourselves to the utmost transparency.”
Mr Trump’s three-day tour has been used to promote personal business opportunities for both sides. The Trump Organisation, led by the president’s son Eric, has concluded deals for luxury residential buildings and golf courses in Saudi Arabia, Dubai and Qatar and for an investment in the organisation’s cryptocurrency business by an Abu Dhabi firm.
Director of the watchdog Project on Government Oversight Danielle Brian told ABC News that these deals “are entirely legal, [but we’ve] never seen the kind of money at stake and the kind of brazen leveraging of political power for a personal financial gain that we’ve seen in this administration.”
On the political front, the three Gulf rulers have welcomed the administration’s indirect talks with Tehran to strike a new deal on limiting Iran’s nuclear programme in exchange for lifting sanctions. In 2018, Mr Trump withdrew from the 2015 agreement negotiated by the Obama administration, even though Iran was abiding by its commitments.
However, along with the UN and international aid agencies, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates have rejected a US proposal for limited deliveries of food, water and fuel to Gaza without securing a ceasefire in the war. Egypt and Jordan have also rejected his plan to evict 2.3 million Palestinians from Gaza and transform the coastal strip into a Middle Eastern “Riviera”.
Mr Trump is unlikely to press for Saudi normalisation with Israel as Riyadh has said this will not happen until there is a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.
